Waning Moon
by Seena58
Summary: Sequel: Three years have passed. The four meet again. But to have happiness is to face the rioting of two kingdoms, and a darker evil they didn't know existed... And the moon is in its way. [AU, DarkKrad, SatoDai]
1. New Moon: Years Pass By

Hey, look, the sequel's up XD

Things to remember: Krad is still a female, in case anyone was wondering.

Dark is still a jerk of some sort and can't fight with large weapons at close range.

Satoshi is still a vampire who's antisocial, the last time I checked.

And Daisuke still has a twin sister floating around somewhere, but I doubt she'll be around much in this story.

Er… what can be said? I love everyone who managed to read all of Thirteen Stars without throwing up and saying that it was horrible, so I'm hoping that this story will turn out okay as well. It'll probably more action/romance though… considering what's happening.

Disclaimers: I didn't own it last time, so who said I owned it now?

Warnings: Muh… the usual? And any spelling and grammatical errors. I know they're somewhere there…

Other: I've been playing FF6 again… so yeah.

000

_"When they meet again, something more terrifying and evil will awaken. Something long since sealed away will break free: leaving death and destruction in its wake. Will they be able to handle it again? Or is this the end of the road?"_

New Moon: Years Pass By

_So long ago, there were the stars._

_So long ago, there was the moon._

_So long ago, there was the sky._

_So long ago, there was the sun._

_What was it that this mean?_

_What part does the evil play within this all?_

_Is there any relevance to this?_

Slumping on the smooth wooden desk, Daisuke Niwa - 17 - stared blankly at the blackboard before them at the front of the classroom. He wasn't paying any attention as to what the teacher was booming out, but it seemed rather pointless in the end, so he wasn't really paying any attention to it. He was seated in the middle of the classroom, with the more troublesome students up at the front, while the rest lounged at the back. The nerds were scribbling away while the rest of them were - quite literally - sleeping at their desks. He was nearing that particular standard of school life, but the sudden slamming sound of a rather large fist hit the front desk was what pulled them all out of their stupor rather quickly.

"You," bellowed their teacher, pointing at some random student, "What did I just tell you?"

The student being picked on paled for a moment, and said, slowly, "Not to jump out of the window, sir. I mean, er... yeah."

Such a small truth that made the rest of them exchange knowing glances. They all had their odd person here and there, so it seemed only right for the teacher to practically pop a vessel in anger. The redhead sighed and returned to staring blankly at the blackboard as he tried to get his concentration back on the line, but it wasn't working all that well. He had that sudden urge to poke someone in the eye, but seeing as that was not allowed in class, he'd just have to sit there, slumped, and wait.

"Kyu--"

With, Daisuke's 'familiar' looked up at him from his position under the redhead's desk. Since the teacher was currently yelling at the student, no one had noticed that there was some sort of creature in class, and he blinked.

"With?"

"Kyu-kyu-kyuuuuu!"

"Er... what?"

The bunny rolled his eyes and tapped a paw on his master's knee, as if that explained it all. Which it did not. Daisuke just sat there, staring at With blankly, until the rabbit did something similar to hitting his head against his paw and then bouncing around energetically, while somehow managing to not be seen at all. But then again, it might have been due to the fact that the rest of the class was now arguing at the teacher in defense of the poor student who had been picked on in the first place.

The redhead translated this as; "Are you an idiot!"

"Hey, that's not nice," he muttered to his pet, who merely 'kyu'-ed back rather indignantly.

He slumped back; great, now he was arguing with his pet, which, while not considering that insane at the least, would seemed insane if someone else was just to witness it randomly.

Someone poked him in the back with the blunt end of a pencil – thankfully – and he turned around, meeting the eyes of his twin sister, who was smiling in that odd little way that screamed "I have a vague idea of what you're thinking at the moment".

"What?" he asked, blinking blankly, not understanding the least of what Daichi was trying to tell him by giving him that look alone. She was still an odd klutz in her own style, but it didn't make her anymore stubborn and randomly thoughtful at times.

She flicked back a stray bang that got in her way, the many glittery bangles catching the rays of light that filtered into the stuffy room; "My dear, dear Dai-chan, it's obvious that With wants to remind you of something," she grinned again, "But you're just so out of it that you can't even remember!" With the pointed end of the pencil this time, she poked him, "You should stop allowing your mind to wander off on its own, bro!"

"That's nice to know," he mumbled back, turning away and ignoring that sharp pain he'd received when his twin had jabbed him, "But I don't think jabbing someone with the sharp end of anything is going to help me remember."

"Of course it will!" protested Daichi over the chaotic sounds of… chaos. Er… yeah. "Anyway, what the hell are you doing zoning out in class anyway?"

"You're the one yelling at me at the moment."

"Dai-chan…" she began in a whingey-yet-dangerous tone.

"Miss Niwa! Pay attention!" roared the teacher from the other side of the room. Although Daisuke had his back turned to his sister, he knew for a fact that she was pouting and sticking her tongue out at the teacher.

But now that his was properly awake, he was completely aware as to why With was behaving strangely. Of course, he had been up for most of the night before, listening to Daichi and their cousin Hikaru belting out the argument of a lifetime, so his half-zombie-like state hadn't been unexpected.

It had almost been three years since the recovery of the Thirteen Stars.

Word had spread, apparently, although the people involved had not. Long ago there was a force that broke apart and four 'heroes' set out on a journey to retrieve them; thus bringing peace unto the land. Or so they claimed.

Well, it was kind of true; they had wasted a week walking around and arguing a lot for one, but that was about all they did in the end. And it was because of Dark that they had come across the final fragment in the first place – him being hit over the head with a rock was just so amusing to watch.

But it had been three years since then, and it was coming up to the time in which the four would be meeting up once more. Why, they had no idea, but what did it matter? It wasn't like they had known each other before that, and then it was only a week; but they seemed to have become close friends all in all, so that was that.

He was looking forward to it quite a bit; it was going to be fun to see them all again.

000

Pulling the curtains back to allow the sunlight to filter into the room, Krad yawned slightly and tugged a hand through her hair, muttering something off-key under her breath. She was currently in a small room at some random inn, and the fact that it wasn't as shabby as some of the other inns she had been at for these past few years, it was a shame to just leave.

Well, she had places to go to this very same day, so there wasn't much to be done about it. Travelling on one's own could get tiresome, tedious, rather pointless and the like, but she found it enjoyable all the same.

And besides, her next destination was to return to the place she had split up with the other three guys that she had been travelling for a week for some crazy reason concerning a prophecy of some sort. Whatever the consequences were, they never really did find out, and that annoyed her, but what could she do? Nothing, and the folk tales that had somehow spread really quickly were amusing to listen to once in a while.

But she couldn't help but miss them… a bit.

True, she only knew Daisuke and Satoshi for a bit, but they weren't bad… for a mortal and a vampire, and Dark… well, she had matters to attend to dealing with her old childhood friend. Could she even call him that, after thirteen years of not really seeing and knowing each other.

She sighed, her hair unnaturally silky for a mercenary that traveled way too much and seemed to be constantly getting into fights that she really didn't need to get involved with.

All in all, Krad Hikari – 20 – hadn't changed a bit in those three years. She doubted she had grown all that much, and although her hair had gotten longer, it wasn't likely that anyone would notice. Her attire was still pretty much the same as from three years back, and she was wielding the very same sword she had stolen from Dark in their first real battle. Where and how she had found it, no one knew; and she definitely wasn't about to tell.

It was her suggestion, of course, to split the group up in the first place, having succeeded in redirecting the thirteen stars to who knew where, but she couldn't help but feel a tad bit guilty a day or so after them leaving.

Her reason of argument?

Dark.

He had always been the sort of idiot to get himself into a problem that he could not crawl out of; for one thing. And she was always the one, in the end, to have to help him out of them in the first place. She berated him, teased him, traded insults and the like, and that seemed to have been the basis of their friendship.

But now, there seemed to be a lot more to it.

She wasn't stupid – blonde or not – and the feelings and the voices in her head annoyed the hell out of her and she had to leave to make sure that she wasn't just going insane in the end. The blonde knew that he wasn't stupid enough to get himself KILLED, but it was still a bit of a worry in its own perspective.

Well, it was time to see if three years had changed him at all.

Not that she didn't like him before and all, but he was such a bluntly stupid jerk with no sense of intelligence or logic, and seemed to constantly have fights with Satoshi whenever there was a lapse of silence. He was, in ways, the life of the group, and while that meant trying to kill each other, at least it wasn't all that boring.

But still, he could be such a jerk.

Regathering the small number of items that lay scattered in the tiny inn room, Krad sighed and blew a stray bang out of her face. It was time to go back there, she knew, and see if they had changed at all; for better or for worse.

All in all, she was looking forward to this reunion.

000

As fate would have it, that very same morning in the outskirts of another little desolate town, a purple haired twenty-year-old somehow managed to burn himself against the flame of a campfire and swore under his breath, withdrawing it quickly. Dark scowled to himself, waved his unburnt hand a bit, and then looked up at the sky, wondering about nothing in particular to himself.

He was bored; very bored; so very, very bored that it wasn't funny anymore.

Why was he bored?

Er… random reasons.

But that wasn't the point at the moment.

Jerked out of his thoughts when he heard the swish of a tent flap, Dark looked up at his traveling companion; who mumbled a morning while rubbing his eyes and stumbling about.

"G'morn'ng…"

"Hey. What's with you this morning?" he asked.

"Besides the fact that you're probably caffeine high again, I don't know?" was the snappish reply as the brown haired man sat himself down and poked a stick at the small flame. His eyes flickered over to Dark's burnt hand. "I see that you were practicing fire-juggling again."

"Shut up, Locke."

"Make me."

"I thought you were only half awake."

"I am."

"So why can you argue with me so much?"

"I was born that way; to make sure that you sound like an idiot before you even open your mouth."

"I swear you are the reincarnation of Krad…"

"But she's not dead."

"She could be and she possessed your body."

"Shut it, Dark. You know you're obsessed with her. And I'm not her."

"Well, duh. You're a guy."

"Quiet, kaitou, or I'll stick a dagger in your ribs."

"I'd like to see you try it."

"Oh, I will. One day."

"Why are you talking so much?"

"To make you feel as stupid as possible, obviously."

"How can you be tired and yet talk so much and why is it that everyone I talk to calls me an idiot at least three times in the first minute?"

"Because you are."

"Shut up."

"Make me."

This was the basis of their general conversation, seeing as they weren't even looking at each other while they continued to argue quite a bit and the conversation flew from one topic to the next – quite literally.

Since the time he was forced to travel on his own, Dark knew for a fact that, despite being independent, he wasn't all that great at fighting and killing huge, bulky things, and that meant that he had to find support of some sort; or at least a job/occupation that allowed him to keep to one side when these sorts of things happened.

That was part of the reason why he had become something akin to a thief and assassin in one, but it didn't mean all that much. Sure, hanging around Locke was okay from time to time, but he really did miss the other three.

Okay, fine. He really, really missed Krad.

He couldn't help it, she was the first person to call him an idiot – at the age of five, mind you – and was the sort who would speak her mind and not care about the consequences. Level headed yet reckless at times – which could be very scary to witness – she was actually quite fine to hang around with.

And, yes, the voices in his head had insisted otherwise and all that random shit that he couldn't give a damn about at the time.

So they split, it had been three years since then, and it was time to go back.

Locke sighed, "Let's just get this assignment over and done with so I can get home already."

"Agreed. Once I get my pay you'll never have to see me again."

"Thank god for that." Mumbled the brunette.

"You say something?"

"Yes… and no."

"What's what supposed to mean?"

"You'll understand one day, Dark. But not now."

Grumbling, the purple-haired man/adolescent/whatever he was turned away for a moment, watching as the sun rose from some side and blinded his eyes. It was a great exercise and all, but it would end up with him having to get glasses. So… yay?

Well, he really couldn't wait to get back and meet the others. Sure, he was good-looking and girls fawned over him all the time – kinda scary, actually – but he never really liked them. They weren't… his sort in the end. He knew who he was aiming for, and it was time to see if three years had made much of a dent at all with who they really were in the end.

000

"This is where we part."

"…"

The first speaker turned around, blinking beneath the heavy hood of his cloak. "Aren't you going to move?"

"…"

"…"

"Goodbye--"

"Wait!" the second person grabbed at this arm, frowning and looking worried at the same time. Her hair was short, cropped almost, and her eyes were a sort of faded grey. "How can you just leave me now!"

Satoshi met her eyes coldly, "Didn't I tell you that I would be going?"

"Yes."

"And I told you never to get attached?"

"Yes, bu--"

"You knew that I would not be there for you, I had no feelings for you, and that when the time came, I would just leave you to fend for yourself. I protected you and got you here; you can walk the rest of the way to where you belong."

The girl scoffed, although tears were forming in her eyes, "I don't belong anywhere! As a half-vampire, no one wants me! I'm an outcast and you know it, Satoshi! How can you just do this to me! I thought… although you said so yourself… maybe…"

"You thought like a fool then," Satoshi yanked his arm free and walked away. "I have no more to say to you."

"It's because of that human you mentioned, isn't it! The Niwa!" screamed the half-vampire hysterically. "That's why you don't care about if I die or not!"

"You're very correct then," replied the vampire without hesitation. "And we may never meet again. Adieu."

The dark shadows threw patterns on the ground as he walked, knowing well that, despite it all, she would not follow him. One who had been abandoned and lost and in pain. What more could he do? He helped her, got her where she was now, and then she came to the solid belief that he would be there for her forever?

He wasn't stupid. And he had no feelings for her – never grew attached to her – and that was final.

And, although she didn't know it, it was because of the human she had mentioned that Satoshi had decided to go all the way instead of just abandoning her in the middle of nowhere.

The Niwa. A mortal… and yet… well, there seemed to be something more. Something that Satoshi doubted was even possible before it had happened, but it had, and now it was time to return to the village cemetery; where they would meet once more.

His own morals would have been to not go at all, but as it was, and as fate would have it in the end, he was forced to travel with some really random freaks and… before he knew it, he actually… scarily enough… enjoyed their company.

Oh, sure, he argued with that stupid purple-haired guy, and the blonde rarely talked to him. well, in truth, the Niwa was the only person who spoke to him and didn't give a damn about him being a vampire, nor did he get into arguments with him and… all that other stuff.

He was actually very much looking forward to this reunion.

He couldn't help it.

And that, alone, was kind of scary.

000

Candlelight flickered and danced across the dim room, casting long shadows in what little light there was and onto the long curtains that draped the room itself. Such a stuffy air as itself was odd enough, and the single table and chair placed in the center of the room looked out of place.

A card was flipped.

"Destruction; one that cannot be avoided."

Another flip.

"Meeting; where feelings and thoughts will meld into one."

_Flip._

"Chaos; rioting for a reason that should not even be thought of."

_Flip._

"Death; it has already opened to us all."

There was silence for a moment, and then the swish of one of the curtains being pulled back. The brunette who entered stared at the cards for a moment before glancing up again. "Is it really happening, then, Towa-san?"

A thoughtful pause.

"… Yes. No matter what, the vibes are clear."

The seer placed another card in front of them.

"The evil will, once again, be awakened."

000

And there's our prologue and all and it's… uh… I think it's okay. Anyhow, this is actually my second take of the prologue, 'cause my flash drive died on me with the copy of it in it so… yeah. I lost it. But I think I covered everything that I needed for this and… uh… I have no idea when I'll get the next chapter up.

But there's a sequel and it's up! (celebrates)

I want to thank the following reviewers: **Shimmering Solitude, Hakudoshi-chan, kittenoftime/chrnoskitty, Blue-Angels-Wings, kyo's little koneko, neko-nya, ginny brenn, animefreaktyan, Bram, Devinedragon, Koway Oceshia, hittocerebattosai **and** 0.o K-chan. **Okay, I think I lost a couple of people along the way (or they stopped reviewing) but that doesn't matter! The fact is that they read it and reviewed (at some point)! But I really do love the people who stuck with me the whole way and gave me support! ... Or something similar to that. Anyway, you know who you are and yeah! (glomps everyone) Plushies for everyone!


	2. Phase One: One Step Forwards

Disclaimers: That guy behind me is poking me with a gun, so shut up.

Warnings: Odd writing, things that don't make sense… oh, the usual.

Other: I… don't know what to think.

000

_"When they meet again, something more terrifying and evil will awaken. Something long since sealed away will break free: leaving death and destruction in its wake. Will they be able to handle it again? Or is this the end of the road?"_

Phase One: One Step Forwards

"I have long since come to believe that this was the most ridiculous idea you've ever come up with, Dai-chan, and I'll say it again," grumbled Daichi as she watched her brother run across from one room to the other as he gathered random items; "You're a moron to be going back. I mean, for one thing, there's a VAMPIRE there still! And the last thing I need to know is that you died due to blood loss!"

"He won't hurt me and you know it," the redhead rolled his eyes, With sitting on his head, and continued his packing, "And you're not coming anyway, so what difference does it make in the end?"

"Well, for one, I won't have a brother anymore," she snapped. "And then what am I supposed to do about it?"

"Don't you mean that you'll have no one to copy the answers from anymore?" he corrected her, "And that would mean that you would most definitely fail or something similar and you don't want that to happen because Aunt will hurt you or otherwise."

His twin snorted at this and slumped on the couch, grabbing a pillow and poking it moodily; "I can't believe that we have to go through this and argue about it all over again."

Straightening up, Daisuke raised both brows and frowned just slightly and then returned to his packing; although there wasn't all that much that he had to bring anyway. Three years hadn't changed his appearance all that much; although looking slightly older meant that people would think twice before attempting to bully/kidnap or pickpocket from him. "Look, you already know that I want to do this. They're my friends and although I only did know them for a week, true, we just… connected. It just seemed to go so well… although there was always a lot of arguing." He smiled just slightly at the memories.

"… Daisuke, do you know how dangerous this may be?"

"What do you mean by that? Nothing's dangerous about it at all. We get to see each other, catch up with what's been going on, and that's about it, right? I told you that."

Frowning at this, Daichi couldn't seem to work out if she should punch her brother in the face or do something otherwise. So she did the only thing that seemed right to do in their current situation; she sulked. Daisuke chose to ignore this and was soon finally complete with his packing. Leaving the room – and his sulking sister – he walked up the stairs and into his room. Daichi had been forced to share a room with Hikaru – despite all protests – and the redhead ended up with a room that was too big for him necessarily, but it didn't really matter. With had a tendency to ruin things when he was bored out of his mind.

"Kyu!"

"I know, I know. Aunt and Uncle aren't going to be all that happy about me leaving for a few days; especially during the middle of term and all," he sighed to his rabbit-spirit-monster-whatever, "But what can be done about it? I really do want to see them again and all."

"Kyu!"

Rummaging through a number of items, the redhead retrieved a couple more items he thought would be useful, tucked one of his ceremonial knives into his belt safely, and was back down before he knew it. Picking up his knapsack and slinging it over one shoulder, Daisuke glanced back at his sister. "Daichi… seriously…"

"I know, I know," obviously still stuck in a sulk, his twin got up and patted him lightly on the shoulder, "You better not take too long, or I'm going to have to kill you."

"Okay," hugging her lightly, Daisuke waved once more and left the house. As the door swung shut, Daichi could only shake her head with suppressed emotions; she was so worried and she didn't know why. Okay, her brother was the sort who hated to fight as such, but there seemed to be something more to it. She obviously have something against the vampire, but that wasn't exactly her case either – although she did hate his guts for some reason. But… urgh, she couldn't work out what or why.

"Just be careful…" she whispered.

000

First off, Krad was bored.

Second, she had been walking for three hours straight and hadn't reached her destination.

Third, it was a damn hot day and she hated this sort of weather because she was sure that one day she would end up sunburnt and with cancer, which was not a good thing at all.

Fourth, she hadn't met a single freaking person or monster at all.

And fifth, she kinda didn't want to have to come face-to-face with Dark and claim some undying love that might not truly exist in the end.

…

……

Oh yes.

She wasn't stupid as people might thought of her as. Blonde or not, she had had to face the world from many different perspectives, and this one was quite obvious that only the blind might have thought otherwise. She knew that her old childhood friend was quite handsome, attractive; an asshole, but all the same, his physical appearance was quite appealing to females. And maybe others, but she would rather avoid that thought for now.

And the fact that she had booted him off to the outside world, it could only mean that there would be village girls chasing after him; unless he'd gone off and lived in a ditch. Or something.

To hell with it.

This was the only way to see if he really did have any feelings for her and vise versa. Sure, she'd met a few cool people, but all they did was stare at the most and couldn't even hold a proper conversation, so they'd been crossed off the list. Daisuke and Satoshi were definitely not anywhere near that area, so that left Dark, on which her brain had been annoyingly consistent for some reason…

And it was still annoying her. But she wasn't all that worried.

The sun beat down on the single lone figure on the dusty footpath. Barely a breeze rustled the leaves and grass, and Krad's hair whipped around her, yet she ignored it all. The rays of light reflected off the golden strands as if they had a life of their own, and yet she was not interested at all.

Locked in her own thoughts and wondering what would become of them in the end, the blonde walked on.

Always walking.

There was nothing more to say on that topic.

Yes, she was looking forward to the reunion; seeing as she had been the one with the suggestion, and of which they had all agreed in the end.

And now it was time to see them once more and see if they'd changed even the slightest. Somehow, Krad doubted it highly, but if Dark managed to be less of a jerk or at least capable of defending himself, then she wasn't complaining all that much in the end.

So what was she to do about it?

She was no different from those years back; still highly independent and ready to bite someone's head off with a sarcastic remark, but that was about it in the end.

Nope, she hadn't changed at all.

Attempting to tuck some stray bangs out of the way hadn't worked and it was beginning to get on the blonde's nerves, no matter what she thought at all. Okay, it was all a bit odd in the end and she was bugged now and walking around with absolutely no company at all was bugging her a lot as well.

Damn all this in the end.

And yet, there was something else that she wouldn't put her foot on; something that was supposed to make a lot of sense and yet did not. Or something close to that situation. It was there, but not there, and that was also lingering around her consciousness and that was just so… annoying.

What was it? What could it be?

Should she be worried? Did she care?

Well, she would have to in the end, wouldn't she?

…

She really was at a loss now.

Goddammit, nothing better happen or she was going to kill something for no reason at all. She just wanted to meet the others, see where it went from there, and then they would go home.

Oh, yeah, home.

It had been over three years since she'd last been there. Who would have thought.

Ever since the Gate had blown up on them, it had been obviously clear that no one would follow them to the Surface World, but it had been claimed that it had been in the process of fixing it up, so how long would it be before the search parties came out?

That was, if they still believed that she and Dark were still alive after all this time.

But they were also only children, so that meant they were the only heirs. Which, in turn, meant that they HAD to live.

Oh joy. She was really looking forward to that reunion. It was bound to be… interesting.

Very interesting, as long as she didn't bite Dark's head off too much. As in, slicing it off. Ooh… decapitation sounded like fun now; but no, she wasn't supposed to be all that insane. Argue with him, yes, but not kill him.

Killing him would just be too easy.

Poking the lump slung over her shoulder, which was her broadsword, the blonde continued on the path of nothingness. Or just the little fact that she couldn't see anything aside from fields, trees, grass, and… yeah. Stuff like that.

Really, the scenery was so bland and she was NOT about to start talking to herself.

So…

Yeah, Krad was still bored.

000

Poking Locke in the eye, Dark wondered how it was possible for his friend and comrade to suddenly get knocked out by little kids who had been throwing rocks around. Ah well, he was already recovering, so everyone was happy.

Okay, that was just an exaggeration; the brunette looked bloody pissed off now.

Holding his head – where the rocks had hit him – Locke shook a fist at the little five to seven year olds, who shrieked and scattered off in an instant. Then he rubbed his eye for a moment; "I don't remember a rock hitting my eye…"

"It was after you fell," the purple-haired adolescent lied coolly. He offered the brunette a hand up and once that was done, they looked around the village. Like every other place, it was shabby-yet-homely, with a couple of people and children wandering about. Kind of odd, but then again, what were they expecting to see.

And they had a job to do, but… er…

Yeah.

"So who are we stealing from this time?"

"Some evil old lady that wouldn't give to the poor or something similar to that."

"Would that make you Robin Hood?"

"Would that make you an asshole?" Locke shot back.

Shaking his head at their common arguments, the two moved around the village, looking at the stalls without all that much interest and the like since they weren't around to shop. Not that there was anything of interest hanging about anyway.

So Dark had a job to do.

And then he had to get out of there and reach the other village/town in which they promised to meet once more.

Then it went from there.

Oh joy.

He was really looking forward to it.

Sorta.

He had a feeling that Krad would be kicking his ass again, though.

Would that be a good thing or a bad thing?

Or something in between?

Okay, now he was confused.

That was probably the reason as to why he rarely listened to his brain in the first place.

Well, on with the show.

Dark was jerked out of his thoughts when Locke tapped him on the shoulder; "Well, here we are. Let's just get this done so I can go home and terrorise the little kids… or my friends. They're both pretty good options."

He sniggered at the brunette's choices, "And I always believe that I was the only one who was insane."

"Dream on, Dark. You're not all that great. Remember the last time you smashed the wall when we were trying to get out of that place."

"Well, you were the one unconscious, if I recall!"

"Shut up, you!"

"Just try and make me, why don't you, huh!"

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!"

"Hey, aren't you the older one of the two of us?"

"We're freaking here already! So pipe down!"

Oh yes, Dark knew that this last mission was going to be utterly hilarious, if not only for the fact that Locke was getting himself all hyped up and annoyed and very impatient; he was looking forward to terrorizing people, huh?

000

Geez… everything around him looked the same.

Like… all the same.

How long was it going to take him to get back?

Satoshi sighed and hung his head.

He didn't want to have to turn into a bat again…

000

So I get another chapter done… kind of in a hurry… but yeah. Couldn't think of anything else so that is what you're stuck with. Hopefully it wasn't too bad. And they're getting there! Slowly but surely! So yeah.

Replies:

chrnoskitty:D Such a nice thing to say. I suppose I just had to put it up because if I don't, well… either I'll forget or other people will forget about it. I'm a very random person and I look forward to your reviews!

Hakudoshi-chan:)

Chi: Okay. ;) I'll update as much as possible… that being once a week… but yeah.

0.o K-chan: I'm working on it… I'm stuck in the thinking stage though…

neko-nya: I just had to shove him in, didn't I? I doubt he'll be around much… but it's all good. And they all have feelings for one another but can't admit it! Yet XD The update mobile broke down. o.O It'll be a while…

kyo's little koneko: Thanks.

Koway Oceshia: We'll just have to see, won't we? (evil grin) The world is doomed! Doomed we say! But now I have to go back to planning… XD Thanks!


	3. Phase Two: One Step Back

Disclaimers: I have to pay all copyright owners royalties for doing this… so leave me alone.

Warnings: Pointlessness (once more, when am I not doing it?), characters talking to themselves, nothing happening and… well, weirdos. And horses. Oh wait, that doesn't matter, does it?

Other: Well… uh… sorry for the wait, firstly, and I ended up putting up another pointless chapter before they actually meet. So yeah, my bad and all, and that means you have to go through another really pointless chapter. So yay.

000

_"When they meet again, something more terrifying and evil will awaken. Something long since sealed away will break free: leaving death and destruction in its wake. Will they be able to handle it again? Or is this the end of the road?"_

Phase Two: One Step Back

"So this is where you want be, kid?" asked the cart-driving-guy, turning his head to face Daisuke, who had been sitting on a large pile of straw; it was always straw… why was it always straw in the end! Who used straw these days for anything anyway? It just didn't make any sense. Not to mention that it was incredibly scratchy and itchy and even though he was wearing a cloak and all… it was still irritating him horribly.

The redhead nodded and hefted his bag upon his shoulder. Because his actual town of birth was at least a week away from where he usually lived, it had been easier to pay the cart-driving-merchant people to take him from one place to another and cut the time in at least half. And since he had left for the place earlier, he knew for a fact that he couldn't be late. Even if he had to hike the rest of the way, it was impossible to comprehend.

Well, okay, if he was abducted or something, that would be a different story, but that wasn't the point. And Daisuke had a dagger with him, so if anyone tried, he could always stab them. If he wanted to; and even then he wans't all that into violence in such a manner.

He rolled his eyes at the thought. No one was that stupid and he was well capable of taking care of himself.

Hopping off onto the ground and wobbling about while he tried to get the feel of his legs, Daisuke tossed some coins over to the driver, who caught it, tipped his hat, and trundled off without another word. The horse whinnied in protest for the day-long journey, but no help was forecoming. The redhead felt sorry for the creature, but couldn't dwell on it long because… well, he had the feeling that someone – or something – was staring at him, drilling a hold in the back of his head was no reason at all.

Turning around, he scanned the town; buildings, buildings, and more buildings, accompanied with fences and small gardens and the customary center of town, but that was about it. Nothing new or odd. Oh sure, there were the little kids who were staring at him in awe, but that was nothing new to him; and the unnerving staring that he could feel was just… it gave him a nervous feeling.

Well, there was nothing he could do about it if he was being… watched… stalked… whatever. Okay, he was getting the life scared out of him. What to do… what to do…

Giving up, the redhead turned to his daemon-pet-thing-whatchamacallit, With. "Can you feel that as well?"

"Kyuu?"

"Or is it just me?"

"Kyuu-kyuu-kyuu!"

"I suppose it's just me then."

It wasn't hard to locate the inn – what, with it's huge, hanging sign and all – but seeing as he still had a couple of hours left of daylight, Daisuke decided on just wandering around and seeing if he could find something of use… or supplies. Food mostly, and healing items in case Dark and Satoshi decided to kill each other in the process…

Not a very happy business indeed.

On the whole, it was all part of the cycle of life and boom, this went there, fist hit that, and insults flew from one place to another. Whopdeedo and all, that was just great.

But he was still looking forward to the whole meeting up deal. As long as they didn't kill each other before they caught up.

What was he supposed to tell them? That he went to school for those last few years? That his twin was still trouble in itself, and now with a scary girly-girl image at that? And that Saehara was still in some form of concussion-like-state? Whoo-hoo, what a life he had.

Looking around, he entered a shop and found himself swamped by a scarily-hyperactive store assistant and the store owner was just looking apologetic. And rightfully so, but still…

Daisuke rolled his eyes; one town down, who knows how many more left he would have to plunge through before getting home. And yes, he still considered it home. Hm…

Onwards to the place on which he was born in…

000

"So…" she muttered, looking around, "Where the hell am I now? It all looks the same…"

As it was, this exact same setting was the same that she had seen for the last few hours while walking around and that whole thing. Trees, grass, bugs, grass, sky, some other thing, more bugs… yeah, she was so excited about it all.

Moodily, Krad kicked the ground in all her annoyed-boring-glory and looked around, hoping for something – anything – would happen. As long as it got rid of her bored-tired-annoying-"gah"-ing (is that a word?) state. As far as the last few hours of the day had been, absolutely nothing had happened, and unless she wanted to go off and kick bugs around for some reason, but she wasn't that sort of person, so that was out of the question.

She was lost as well, but she wasn't all that worried about that particular factor; she was lost all the time and she didn't have a compass, and besides, she couldn't read the damn things with their little 'n's and 's's and stuff with the red arrows. Leave it to someone who cared and just go with her gut feeling and places where she could get something to eat in the end; that was her way of living.

Judging where the sun was now, Krad made a rough calculation on how much longer it would be before night fell once more. It was a bit of a natural knack of hers and supposing that she was right, there weren't all that many hours in the day anymore. And she didn't want to have to run around in the night because she needed sleep. And no, she was not referring to beauty sleep, because that was just a waste of her time and she had natural beauty… as the sick, twisted people said. And she beat the hell out of them.

So no one said it in the end.

Dargh… what a boring scenery she had to face all the time now.

Flopping back, she pulled her sword free from its sheath and looked down the blade for a moment before the distinct, yet still far-away, sound of something – horses, perhaps – made itself heard. This was a shock, as she had been travelling all day without any other signs of life aside from the random rabbit, and she sat up properly and looked around suspiciously. It wasn't hard to locate where the noise came from and from here it looked like she was about to be 'ambushed' by… three dudes on horses.

Hm… if she were to decapitate them, would she be charged for manslaughter? She didn't want to think about it; just the mess in itself was a bit too much information. But if that was the only choice left in the end…

Krad snorted; that was never the choice in the end.

Standing up again once more and shaking loose loam off her cloak, the blonde watched impassively as the three dudes-on-horses finally reached where she had decided was a great place to camp for the night; that was, in the middle of nowhere. She might as well have brought a giant flag with her to tell everyone where she was.

"What is it?" she asked calmly. The three nameless bandit-dudes-something-or-other, blinked. Maybe it was something to do with the whole thing with her actually walking around and being calm about the situation that unnerved them. Or it was just because she was a… she, and was wandering around while carrying a large sword that looked incredibly dangerous… and sharp…

"Hand us all of your possessions and we won't hurt you," one of them finally said, holding out a grubby hand. Raising a brow, Krad inclined her head and swung her sword around lazily; and considering the size of it and all, it was slightly freaky to see.

Bringing the blade up into a proper combatant stance, she smirked coldly, "Really now? You want to try that?"

Of course, at this point she was talking to thin air, because the so-called bandits had run off and she sighed. Bugger them, she needed to find a proper training partner that wouldn't constantly freak out when she swung her giant sword around.

Well, seeing as she wasn't all that sleepy, Krad moved on. There wasn't much else she could do; and with the stars as a guide, it would – hopefully – be easier traveling.

000

Dark blinked.

Then he blinked again.

And again.

… And again.

… and so forth until Locke hit him over the head; hard. With a yelp, the purple-haired adolescent glared at his partner-in-theft-that-wasn't-considered-wrong-but-really-was who merely glared back in the end. And they glared.

And glared.

… And glared.

… And continued to glare.

Until someone else finally gave up and told Dark to leave or they would send the dogs after him. And by that, they meant the… things. Or something. He wasn't all that sure anymore.

So calling his goodbyes, the thief did as he had been taught over these past years; he stole one of their horses. And as no one could be bothered to chase after him, he got away with it and was on his way back to… well, not home… more Daisuke's home… but whatever. He was going back to see people he hadn't seen for a long time… so yeah, that was good.

That was what he believed, anyway.

The actual theft in itself that morning had gone smoothly, but then Locke had gone off and managed to run into trouble; which lead to more running; and even more running; until they ran up on the roofs and no one could chase after them, and even then people pelted rocks at them and it was painful and annoying and it bugged the hell out of them… so yeah, that was saying a lot.

And he was talking to himself. Well, narrating. Er… something or other. Look, he didn't care anymore, okay! He always knew he was insane.

_Shut up brain._

Make me.

… It was finally official then. Yes, the great prince-whatever-dude-thingy-some-guy Dark had gone completely and utterly insane.

But aside from that little piece of information, the thief was riding into the middle of nowhere with only the vague notion of knowing where he was going and for what reason. Sure, he wasn't all that great with direction, and he needn't to have really stolen the horse, but being as bored as he was, he just couldn't pass the chance to annoy someone. Or everyone. Heck, even himself. It was just that sort of day when nothing happened and anything was better then just standing around and waiting for something to happen.

Anyhow, he found himself in the middle of nowhere – somewhere he didn't know, anyway – and the first thing he wanted to do was… sleep? No, he didn't need it. Walk? Er… sure, why not? It was a lot more fun than riding on a horse that he rarely rode on. And it wasn't all that happy about being kidnapped in the first place anyway.

"Fine, go then," he muttered as soon as he had gotten off the creature. The horse seemed to glare at him for but a moment before galloping away and he looked up at the sky in an attempt to pinpoint his location. "That one there… leads to… eh… whatever… oh yeah," he pointed a finger in a random direction, "THAT way… I think. Okay… maybe not…"

Dark groaned in frustration and shook his head; so he was lost, didn't know where the hell he was and really couldn't give a damn about it. At least he'd packed before leaving, but that didn't help the current situation.

Ignoring the three bandits that streaked past him in a haste that screamed 'danger' the teen-adolescent-thief moved onwards, in hopes that he would soon find the right way to go and wouldn't have to worry about it any longer.

It was a clear night without so much as a breeze and the dead silence was slightly uncomfortable due to the fact that it was incredibly… quiet. Yes, that was the word. And all the walking as such was getting on his nerves; and that wasn't a good thing at all.

So much walking, nothing doing… who wouldn't be bored in the end?

This was taking a lot more time then necessary… that was for sure…

000

Winging into the town, at least Satoshi knew that no one would be paying any attention to a bat at this time at night. Such creatures were common in this particular time of day, but whatever, he hated reverting to his so-called 'bat' form. It was so demeaning and annoying, not to mention it hurt whatever reputation he held in the first place.

Changing back, the vampire looked around himself and knew at once that there was nothing to really care about and walked away. He now just had to find a place to stay for the night and carry on travelling tomorrow, or something, if he could bother.

The days were passing incredibly slowly, though, and that was something that got on his nerves as well. Although he did seem to get a lot of odd and suspicious stares from people as they passed by; what was with people and their thoughts on guys who wore black all the time? He had sensitive skin and he couldn't help it at all, so what was their problem?

Grumbling incoherently under his breath, Satoshi walked over to the inn, but stopped as soon as he noticed some guy loitering about. Frowning, he approached the figure slowly.

"Damn little kids… always rebelling…" muttered the stranger in a low voice.

The vampire sidled over until he was right behind the person, who was peering into one of the inn's rooms. "If I had my say, I would have to claim that you're violating personal policy." He hissed coldly, making the person jump in surprise.

"What—I—dah--" they stammered. Well, it was a he, but… whatever. Satoshi was in no mood to care.

"Move or I'll deal with you here and now," he snapped. Scrambling upwards, the man-dude-some-stranger scattered off at an instant and this left Satoshi on his own. Glancing into the room and wondering why such a random person was practically stalking them, his eyes widened just slightly and he hurried off as well.

Maybe it was better if he just keep moving onwards before the daylight came out and he… melted or something. That was better, and it wasn't all that long before the reunion came and all so why not? Best to be on the move constantly, but at the same time that weird-guy might still be around and…

Satoshi shrugged the thoughts off and walked back towards where the center of town was. No one would notice him anyway, and it wasn't like… uh… yeah. He really had to stop his mind from bouncing around everywhere.

000

"Kyuu?"

"Did you feel it too, With?" asked Daisuke. He glanced over at the window, but there was no one there, and he suppressed a shiver. "I wonder if that was a good thing or a bad thing…"

"Kyu-…"

"Yeah… the feeling changed as well… creepy… or… well…"

The redhead couldn't explain the feeling, but… at least it wasn't dangerous. As in, sick, twisted dangerous. He had been hoping for that feeling to just leave, otherwise he was going to summon something large to eat whoever it was. At least now he wouldn't have a death over his head about it.

Ah well, no time to bother his head over that. Pulling the sheets over his head, Daisuke closed his eyes and tried to get some sleep.

000

The distinct sound of glass shattering made Riku's head jerk up and she ran out of the room. Ripping the heavy curtains aside, the brunette pushed in and she stumbled over to the seer.

Crouched on the floor, Towa was shaking her head slowly, as if unable to comprehend what was going on.

"Towa-san? What happened?" she asked desperately.

The silver-haired woman glanced up at Riku, "Riku… saa… it was nothing. Really."

"Nothing?" she snorted as there was another swish as Risa entered the room. "I think crystal balls shattering has to be something."

The long-haired twin stared at the shattered pieces of glass and blinked once, before meeting the seer's eyes, "Another bad omen?"

"… If you want to call it that," Towa allowed herself to be pulled up and she sighed shakily, "But it seems that the destruction is getting a lot more stronger than even what I predicted. It may be too much for them to handle. I just don't know anymore…"

Riku's eyes narrowed at this as she left the room for her younger sister and the seer, and stepped out of the small house in which they all roomed in. Worried or not, it didn't show on her face, but she could feel it too; dangerous powers lurking in the shadows of the planes, and it was not a nice feeling. Emotions mixed and weaved in one another…

Like what was said, something was forcing itself free into the world; and it was a lot more powerful than last time. That wasn't a good thing at all. But what were they supposed to do about it anyway?

"How much longer now?" she asked softly to no one in particular. The wind answered her question, though, and she frowned; worry and anger on her features at the same time. "But… that can't be. How could they all be travelling to fast…? Nothing? No one?"

The wind oracle couldn't seem to believe her own ears and her eyes widened; "Tomorrow--…!"

000

See! It's completely and utterly pointless and Daisuke was being STALKED :O But Satoshi got rid of him and stuff and we will never hear of it again. Do you know what that means ;D That is, what the vampire saw… and nothing dirty! XO At least… I hope not. And I think you can take a stab at what Riku meant in the end.

And I PROMISE that they will meet in the next chapter, because I hate stalling and all. And… yeah. This is going to be… interesting…

Replies:

Koway Oceshia: Sorry, they didn't meet XO But I absolutely promise that they will in the next one. Actually, it's kinda funny, because geographically they're already in the same sort of area. Dark is walking just a bit behind Krad in the open fields, and Daisuke and Satoshi are actually in the same village. Funny, that ;D

Makurayami Ookami: That's just the reality of life, I suppose XO

ginny brenn: Here's the next one ;)

neko-nya: Wow, it showed up o.O I ran away from you but was forced to come back… or something. Odd. Sugarhighness is good! XD And people are being terrorized more so… apparently. :O Krad wants to kill Dark still…


	4. Phase Three: Meet Around the Gravestones

Disclaimers: Would I bother to put this up if I did own it?

Warnings: Complete and utter pointlessness. It's all good, though.

Other: They meet. How much more can be said?

000

_"When they meet again, something more terrifying and evil will awaken. Something long since sealed away will break free: leaving death and destruction in its wake. Will they be able to handle it again? Or is this the end of the road?"_

Phase Three: Meet Around the Gravestones

"Finally made it!" Krad burst out unexpectedly, scaring the hell out of some poor little chickens that had been walking around for some reason across the dusty footpath. As it was still quite early in the day, no one else – save from farmers – were awake, but all they did was give the blonde an odd look before turning away like she didn't exist.

She couldn't care less about their actions at the moment; she was just so happy that she had somehow managed to find her way into the right town without dying from boredom or something equally evil.

Trudging through the pitiful construction that made the gates that surrounded the town, she looked about the place, now wondering what she was supposed to do now. She was early, that was certain, and a single day's trek had led to amazing results; that was, one night of walking had taken her to where she was supposed to be. Or something.

Mind wandering back, she could have merely used her wings, but they bugged her. Not just because they were huge things for a start, but… uh… yeah. They were just incredibly annoying and the other reason wasn't all that important to her. And they were usually just used for emergency situations, which there weren't many of. So that was all said and done and… yeah.

Okay, that had made no sense whatsoever.

Scanning the scenery before her, and completely ignoring the sun that was now slowly rising and tinting the sky with various pretty colours, Krad walked around, down the road, as if waiting for something of interest to happen.

As it was, nothing did happen, she was back into the bored and moody mode, as she approached the cemetery which merely had a couple of gravestones; many of which had been vandalized by rowdy children; or crazy, drunken adults, it was kind of hard to tell.

Finding the one marked 'Niwa', the blonde located the very same tree in which the four had parted ways and went over to it. It definitely looked the same, as far as she could tell; but if that was a good thing or a bad thing, she just didn't care. It was a tree, and that was final. Oh yeah, her mind was working full-gear already, it was obvious to see.

She sat down and stared blankly at nothing in particular. Like, literally, because there really wasn't anything to se at the moment. Closing her eyes, she just sat there for a moment until the sound of approaching footsteps rammed into her hearing of serene nothingness. The first thing that popped into her head was to slice and dice the disturber; but as she opened her eyes and located the person, she smiled and jumped up.

"So… you made it." she said, just loud enough for the other person to hear.

"Guess I did," Daisuke admitted, smiling slightly, "Although it's going to end up raining soon… I think…" he glanced up at the sky again, and muttered something under his breath as his pet/companion agreed readily.

"Kyu!"

The blonde shook her head, "So he's still around as well, then?"

"Yup!"

There was a moment of awkward silence as they stood around, waiting for something to happen… again. Or for at least one of them to break the silence with some semblance of conversation; which was not forthcoming. But as Krad looked around, something interesting caught her eyes and, grinning evilly – which scared the redhead before her – she pulled Daisuke into a hug.

"Krad-san?" he spluttered, not embarrassed to say the least, but incredibly confused. "What's up?"

She winked, "Wait and listen."

Doing as he was told, it wasn't long before an annoyed shout could be heard. That, or just incoherent spluttering. As in, really, really incoherent, so one could not tell whether it was cursing or talking or, just that, spluttering.

"…? Is that Dark?" the redhead inclined his head, still lost, as he identified the voice almost at once.

"Yeah," she waved a hand, "Well look who ended up coming around in the end?" she called, just loud enough for the spluttering figure to hear, "What took you so long?"

She let go of the still-confused younger boy, who turned in time to see a shocked-looking Dark with his mouth hanging open and just staring like the world had gone insane. Okay, sure, Krad wasn't all that much of a hugging person in the first place, but even then the reaction she'd received on that was still highly comical on it's part. Unless Dark suffered a heart attack and died, but hey, who knew?

Daisuke was about to say something, but said sight of a familiar hooded and cloaked figure right behind the purple-haired now adolescent.

"Hiwatari-kun!"

He noticed a vague movement that might have indicated acknowledgement, but the vampire reached Dark first and must have said something, because the adolescent screamed something not fit for ears and Krad's temple twitched just that slightly.

"He really has to learn to curb that tongue or I'm slicing it off one day," she grumbled to herself. Daisuke didn't hear this, however, as he was already making a beeline for the other two at the entrance of the cemetary. The blonde just stood there, arms crossed and smirking, noticing that her childhood friend was still in a state of shock. Well, she hadn't expected this much of a shock… but it was still fairly amusing in the end.

And the scene became all that more amusing due to the fact that Dark seemed to have recovered enough to stick a leg out and trip the redhead as he was running. In effect, Daisuke tripped and cannoned right into the vampire and they collapsed in a heap.

Rearranging her sword, Krad strode over and hit Dark over the head, "Don't be so mean to him, you moron."

"Hey, you were the one… being so… ugh…" the purple-haired adolescent grumbled under his breath and covered his face, "You were really acting like a girl then… it was scary…"

"A girl? Me?" she blinked and then smiled ironically, "Dark, I am a girl."

"Yeah, and it's freaky to see you acting like that!"

Hitting him over the head again, Krad looked over at the younger two, "You guys alright?"

Satoshi mumbled something and hitched the hood over his face again, "Whatever."

"Wah! I'm really sorry!" squeaked Daisuke, sitting up.

"It's okay," their eyes met for a moment before the redhead got up while pulling the vampire up as well. Dark was sniggering on the side, pausing every single time Krad hit him over the head, and Daisuke glanced over in their direction.

"Dark…"

"Yeah?" suddenly the older of the two was shifting nervously away, acutely aware of the little thing called a dagger that was hanging from the redhead's belt. Very, very dangerous vibes and all.

Of course, he had nothing to worry about as the boy merely smiled widely – and scarily cheerful, nevertheless – and chirped, "Hi Dark, how's it been?"

"Great… I suppose," he was still shifting slowly away, nevertheless; it was safer that way, "Running around, causing chaos, what more could one ask for, really? You?"

He shrugged, "School, mostly. And Saehara never did fully recover from Daichi's last failed summoning."

"Your twin, isn't she?" Krad blinked, "Surprising that she can't do a successful summoning."

"Maybe it has something to do with her not practicing," Daisuke didn't seem all that concerned and waved a hand to Satoshi, "Well, you two probably want to catch up, so why don't I show you around, Hiwatari-kun?"

Not waiting for anyone to reply or agree, the redhead grabbed the vampire by the wrist and dragged him off. Inclining her head curiously, the blonde could only stand there.

"Wow… he hasn't changed all that much, has he?" she wondered out loud.

"And neither have you," grumbled Dark, rubbing the back of his head, "Geez, you hit HARD, you know."

"Oh, shut up. You're head is as thick as a rock, so I can't understand why you'd want to complain so much."

"But it hurts!"

"Whatever, I don't care, do I? Now move your ass or I'm leaving you behind."

Suddenly grinning, the purple-haired-now-adolescent-despite-not-acting-like-it bounced right back and seemed to recover as he followed his childhood friend out of the cemetery and to who knew where. As it was STILL quite early in the morning, there still weren't many people AROUND, and so they were pretty much free to do whatever they honestly wanted or cared about. Not that anyone seriously cared, but that was besides the point. The fact remained that they were walking around and weren't saying anything; hello to awkward silences.

Waiting for Krad to say something was getting on his nerves, so Dark was just about to clear his throat to say something – hell, anything would do – when Krad suddenly started.

"… Huh?"

"Hey, it's those chickens again!"

"… HUH!" he was lost. Like, completely and utterly lost. Words could not comprehend his sense of lost-something-or-other. He was just lost. And yes, that word has been used too much in a couple of sentences.

Turning away from the chickens, the blonde seemed to remember that he was still around, "Oh, you wouldn't know, would you?"

000

Finding the somewhat-concealed lake that was not all that far away from the village-town itself, Daisuke looked into the murky depths of the… place. Landmark. Whatever, who cared?

On the whole, all he wanted to do was ask the vampire behind him as many questions as possible, but at the same time… well, he wasn't saying anything, so that must have meant something. Other than being in denial to his own feelings, whatever _they _were, he was at a complete loss; no kidding, really now.

He was more bound to place that feeling as to being amazed at the fact that he was face-to-face with a vampire, or it could have something to do with irking the hell out of Daichi, who had this thing with dating someone and making a complete moron out of herself; not him, but her. That was, as siblings they got along fine, and it was sort of hard to compete with one another, but it didn't help when she was continuously harping on about him finally 'settling down' with someone. For some reason, that just sounded so wrong…

"It's been a long time, hasn't it?" murmured Satoshi, finally breaking the silence that had settled over them some time ago. The redhead started and forgot what he was thinking about. Or maybe it had something to do with the fact that the vampire was actually _starting _an actual conversation. That in itself was sort of scary.

Tilting his head a bit and now focusing on his own reflection, Daisuke nodded, thinking; "It has been, hasn't it? I never knew how boring life was before all that," he laughed slightly, "And to think that all that really happened in a little over a week. It's strange, isn't it?"

"Yeah…"

More silence.

And then more.

And even more.

Hell, they didn't seem to want to say much this morning, did they?

Nope, not at all.

"Hey, Hiwatari-kun," Daisuke suddenly perked up, remembering, "because you're a vampire, does that mean that if you're exposed to the sun in anyway you'll die or something?"

Turning his head slowly to stare at the mortal, the first thing that ran through Satoshi's mind was that this kid was really odd. Okay, he had had that passing thought go through his mind many, many times before in that short week of them having to travel together and all, but still… he couldn't help it. It was now part of his daily thinking routine… if one could call it that. Meeting the redhead's eyes, he detected that burning curiosity that humans always seemed to have that made him want to rip his hair out in frustration. That might have been an exaggeration, but he could never work out as to why this was so; mortals were so… so… simple, and nothing ever made sense to them.

And yet he found himself really not caring that Daisuke was the one asking. Sure, he was a mortal and all, but what was he supposed to do about it in the end? Actually, don't answer that question.

"Hiwatari-kun?"

Snapped out of his… thoughts? Musings? Random whatevers? Satoshi returned to the reality that involved a muddied lake, a human and his daemon bunny thing. "No, we just don't like sunlight all that much," he shrugged, "Not being considered a full-vampire myself, I could walk around in the sun if I wanted to… but I'd rather not."

"Eh? But both your parents were--"

"Perhaps, but I was different from them. I didn't have the raging blood-lust that the rest of them had, and was considered an outcast."

"Oh… so then… why all the black? Is it tradition?"

"Camouflage mostly. And the fact that my entire family seemed to be obsessed with the tone," he hid a grimace, "Such a bland colour."

Daisuke perked up instantly at this, "Then why don't we go and get you something else?"

"What?" Okay, this was not what he had thought was going to happen. But the mortal was all for it and began to drag him off back into the actual town-village-whatever-the-hell-it-was.

"Come on! It'll be fine! As long as you don't try to hurt them, no one cares! Besides, you don't exactly _look _like a vampire. I mean… how can you classify one?" Daisuke stopped at this for a moment, thought, but then shrugged it off, "Come on! We don't have all day!"

"Niwa…"

"Hm?"

"It's nothing."

Shoot that all down; this boy was annoying, yet at the same time it was incredibly amusing/adorable to watch it happening. Although… Satoshi hit the back of his head, although not hard enough for anyone to really notice. "Will the stores even be open at all?"

"Sure! The stores are open twenty-four hours a day!"

Oh well, it looked like he would have to suffer the company of more mortals now. Geez… why was the world so evil and annoying… poking him constantly in the arm all the time…

000

Because there was absolutely no place else to go without Krad saying something about chickens for some unknown reason, the two found themselves right back at the gravestones area. As it was, at least it was quiet and gave a pretty good view of the rest of the area. Not to mention it wasn't hard to pinpoint the redheaded figure and his cloaked companion.

"I never did understand as to why that vampire hangs around, even now," muttered Dark, arms crossed and squinting. "I mean, why does he care so much all of a sudden?"

"Who said he cares?" Krad shot back, admiring her fingernails with a bored air that screamed otherwise. "He just agreed with us. Although I do feel like I have the right to say that he's taken a liking to Daisuke."

"What? Him? Liking… him! What the? That doesn't make sense!"

"Course it doesn't to a moron like you. Now shut up and let me think."

"But I don't want to shut up."

"Of course you don't, idiot. Otherwise I wouldn't be telling you otherwise."

"…" Pouting and sulking, Dark just shot her a glare and went back to staring at the two figures, marking their progress, "But they're completely different. I mean, aside from the same gender thing, how is it possible for vampires and humans at all… that just sounds wrong."

"Perhaps, but it's not like it's us."

"What'd you say?"

Shoot, she hadn't meant to say that, "If they get together, who gives a damn? I mean, as long as they're happy, I couldn't give unless… whatever."

"You mean it would be like crossbreeding?"

Krad grimaced, "That's just disgusting. Don't start. Besides, they're both boys."

"Oh yeah."

"Don't tell me you _forgot_."

"Perhaps I did."

Curling her hand into a fist, she swung it at the back of his head, but this time he managed to dodge and, grinning, he stuck his tongue out at her. With a growl, she lunged in his direction.

Of course, despite being the better fighter of the two, it was obvious that Dark soon had the upper hand… until she kicked him and got up, frowning. "You're so immature."

"Hmph, like you're one to talk," wincing, he managed to sit upright. "So, meet anyone interesting on your travels?"

Well, it looked like they were finally deciding to get somewhere with this pointless conversation, "Depends on what you mean. Sorcerers, mercenaries, there are a good number of them around. How about you?"

"Nah, aside from my 'mentor', everyone was just boring. And some of those girls," he shuddered, "are stalkers."

"Nice to hear that," smiling humorlessly, he she bent over and towered over him, "So what's your point?"

Tugging her long ponytail, Dark smirked, "Depends on what you want to hear, really?"

"Then let's go and decapitate you."

"Hey, I'm serious!"

"So am I."

"God, you're making this harder than it has to be."

"Hm?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Fine."

Ooh yeah, he was pretty helpful when it came to this, wasn't he? "Fine what? Spit it out, moron."

"Let's just pretend this never happened and… uh… whatever."

This was _really _getting them far, "If you're not gonna say it, I might as well leave you to stare at the sky. How about it?"

"How about what?"

He was an idiot.

"You are so stupid sometimes. I'm going home."

"But we can't. I mean, the Gate's still broken, right?"

Yep, really moronic.

"Then move your ass and let's get the other two."

"Fine then, _miss_."

"Good to hear that, _asshole._"

And with that came the silent agreement to be a couple. Yeah, there was a meaning behind the entire conversation after all. Krad was smiling just slightly as Dark followed behind her, muttering under his breath. Perhaps it wasn't going to be that bad after all…

000

Yeah… I mean, I wanted them to say it out loud, but I think this works better. That and the fact that I'm no good at sappy confrontation whatever scenes, so lets leave it at that.

But who will say it out loud first? Krad and Dark, or Daisuke and Satoshi? It's up to you.

And do you want to hear more about Daichi and that girl that Satoshi abandoned? Depends on what you want.

Replies:

Koway Oceshia: Yep, they were just so close, yet so far. But this time, you can't miss them XD Dark just doesn't like to pay attention to stuff, that's all.

neko-nya: Breathing is essential… right? Or maybe it only matters when you notice it. Ah well, if we lived under the sea, it wouldn't matter at all. Then we'd need gills. So… good old sugarhighness XD That's what we all need at the moment. ;D

Blue-Angels-Wings: You did? o.O Thanks so much XD Hopefully I can make the sequel work.

Makurayami Ookami: Now they're all together. What's gonna happen next? … I don't know.

And Krad will never speak of chickens again… in case you were wondering.


	5. Phase Four: Peace Never Lasts

Disclaimers: Would I bother to put this up if I did own it?

Warnings: An attempt to get pairings together and open… and fails miserably. Oh, mild language, violence, and insults towards Dark's intellect.

Other: Needless to say, they talk, they try to get somewhere, they get nowhere. Yay for them.

000

_"When they meet again, something more terrifying and evil will awaken. Something long since sealed away will break free: leaving death and destruction in its wake. Will they be able to handle it again? Or is this the end of the road?"_

Phase Four: Peace Never Lasts

Daisuke was grinning innocently as Satoshi gave him a death ridden glare, "What are you talking about? You look great!"

"I look like a moron."

"No way, you're gorgeous," winked the shop assistant, and the vampire looked ready to hit her for the either the comment of the gesture, one could never tell. But it was clear that he wasn't all that happy, but what was he to do about it at this point and time?

Having been forced out of his entire black attire of clothing, the vampire had been forced into a number of different clothes, dress suits, and the random stuff that had long since been classified as a girl's sport in terms of impulse shopping for the sake of it.

Right now he was staring at the mirror like the end of the world had come, although it was just a normal white dress shirt and some pants, but still. It must have had something to do with being stared at by the two mortals currently with him. Very, very uncomfortable. The redhead he could deal with, but the scary blonde that was squealing as such…

"I never thought you two would be the ones into shopping for clothes," Krad commented as she entered the dressing room. Clothes stood out from both sides and it was incredibly cramped as she raised an eyebrow. Not being one to get into the girly-girly stuff, she hated being here at the moment.

Dark was right behind her, thankfully not running into anything or tripping things over, "Great, now that vamp-boy over there is wearing something new, the end of the world is upon us!" He yelled, only to run right into Krad although she was in plain sight.

The assistant, who had been staring at Dark now, blinked at a loss, "Vamp-boy?"

"It's nothing, nothing," Daisuke said hastily, shooting the adolescent a sharp look before handing her some money, "Well, we better go now, right? Bye and thanks again!" He was out of the door as the sentence finished and Satoshi was clutching onto his old clothes as he followed the human out quickly. Krad just watched them as they walked off, smiling with a hint of irony in her features.

"Aw… isn't that just so cute?" she asked, before noticing that the shop assistant was still staring at her not-said-out-loud-but-still-her-boyfriend-whatever, "What? Did he grow an extra head?"

Dark scowled at her, "Shut up!"

"Yeah right, as if I'd listen to you."

"… So," recovering quickly as the two older adolescents glared at each other with the terms 'if looks could kill', the shop assistant got out of her stupor and flourished about, "Would you two like to see some of the newest styles around? Or will you just be taking your leave? Or… customary service? White's really your colour."

Noticing that this was directed right at Krad, the blonde stared at her like she'd gone insane, "What did you just say?"

"White's your colour. Okay, let's just add a little pink to it and then you're all set!"

"We're going," snapped the blonde, grabbing her-boyfriend-yet-maybe-not-but-they-had-silently-agreed-on-it by the wrist and yanking him out of the shop. The bell connected to the door's entrance jangled violently as the door slammed shut and even then Krad was still fuming and stomping on her way.

Lost as to what had been just said, Dark allowed himself to be dragged along. Sure, being dragged like a little kid with his mother wasn't the most encouraging of things to be thinking of, but at least she hadn't tried to kill him just yet; although she looked like she sorely wanted to. What was with that whole pink and white thing, anyway? Did it even matter? Krad hated dresses or anything related to it but had been forced to wear them her whole life, so what difference did it make? Probably a lot, but that wasn't the point at the moment, was it?

Not knowing why she was overreacting as she was, Krad was still fuming at the stupid, stupid girl's comments about colour. And clothes, which had been left unsaid but hung around the shop like a plague. Her face felt flushed and she wasn't paying all that much attention to where she was going, but Daisuke's voice soon brought her back to reality and she glanced up.

"Krad-san, you don't look so well," the redhead said as she approached them, conveniently forgetting that she was still dragging Dark along, "Did Dark say something stupid again?"

"Why would I say something stupid?" asked the now-annoyed purple-haired adolescent, popping up behind the blonde.

"Because you always say something stupid. Right, Hiwatari-kun?"

The blue-haired vampire nodded silently in the affirmative. Then again, he knew that this conversation wasn't going to help them get anywhere, but being stuck where he was was enough to keep him there. Or something like that; he had no idea what to think anymore.

Dark fumed indignantly, "Why does everyone I meet like to pick on me so much! I'm just like the rest of you, so stop being so mean to me!" He waved his arms around, "I bet you all do it on purpose!"

Unable to stop despite of herself, Krad smirked, "And you wonder why? I think it's all a bit obvious. Your intelligence isn't all that great and you're not the brightest of people. And what everyone else says is completely and utterly true, so stop your whining already."

This just ended up with even more complaining on the thief's part, "Krad-----!"

"Just shut up already."

He pouted at this and crossed his arms. Shaking her head at the childish display she was getting from the other end, the blonde turned away and looked around to locate where they were exactly. They had arrived at the center of the village-town-whatever and both younger teens were sitting by a stone fountain that was spouting out clean-ish looking water. Not that she would really trust it and all, but it didn't look all that bad.

"Has that thing been there for a long time?" she asked casually, trying to regain the vibe of normal conversation above all and deciding not to comment on the really weird look of Satoshi not being hooded all the time.

Daisuke nodded happily, "Yeah, as long as I can remember being here. Argentine-kun used to take us here to learn summoning and stuff, because he said there was something really special to it and all."

"Really now?"

"Uh-huh! And if you pay really close attention, then you can actually feel the magic running through this entire town!"

It was clear that the redhead was getting really excited now because his face seemed to light up in extreme excitement, although Krad also got the feeling that he was going to hurt himself if he wasn't all that careful. And as she was thinking this very thought, the boy somehow managed to topple over and practically fell into the fountain. That was, he would have, if Satoshi hadn't grabbed him at the last moment.

Of course, this led to a rather jumbled situation that only lasted for a few seconds, and of which both human and vampire ended up on the stony pavement in a heap. Dark sniggered at this before looking away as Krad glared at him, and then the blonde bent over and offered one of them a hand up. That being because she couldn't tell one from the other now as they were pretty much tangled up… somehow. Really, how was that possible when they both had just tripped?

"Ow…" mumbled Daisuke.

"You okay?" the blonde asked.

"I… think? Hiwatari-kun?" as always, the redhead was more concerned about others rather than himself. Hell, if he was bleeding to death and some guy was next to him with a sprained ankle, he would attempt to help them.

"I'm fine. You should be more careful," the vampire replied in a muffled voice. The redhead disentangled himself with Krad's help and then pulled Satoshi up as well, who brushed some soil off his new clothes and raised an eyebrow at the mortal. "You really have to stop being so enthusiastic."

The shorter boy's face flushed at this, "Uh…"

Whatever else the redhead might have said at this point was rudely interrupted as Dark, having gotten bored with the proceedings, decided to move things at a faster pace. A much faster pace at that, which involved shoving Daisuke into Satoshi and they both ended up in the fountain anyway.

Krad glared at him, "What the hell was that for, you bastard? Are you trying to get them killed or something?"

"Well, I could, but you wouldn't approve of it," the purple-haired man said calmly, giving her a winning smile that she did not succumb to, "But you said that vampy over there liked dear Dai-chan, so we might as well get it over and done with." The blonde shut him up by slamming the sheath of her broadsword on his thick, thick skull. He collapsed on the pavement, unconscious, but she paid him no heed as she walked over to the fountain to check on the other two.

Surprising enough, Daisuke was laughing. Did he hit his head or something and go completely insane? Or was it just a mental relapse on the back of his mind; currently under construction.

"Are you… sane?" she asked hesitantly.

The redhead smiled back at her, calming down quickly, "Yeah, of course I am. I mean, this just strongly reminded me of when Daichi used to…" laughing softly, he shook his head, "Never mind, just childhood memories and all. A bit nostalgic is all."

"Oh… I see…" Recalling the little fact that the redhead's parents had died and had left him in the care of other relatives and not much else, Krad had to wonder how he must have felt most of the time and even now. Ah well, worry about that later and get back to the present. "You two should get out before you catch a cold or something."

Seemingly noticing just then that they were both still in the fountain, Daisuke seemed incredibly shocked.

"Oh yeah! … Dark!"

"He's sleeping," the blonde put some strong emphasis on the word 'sleeping' and kicked the lump lightly to check if he was still out of it or not. When he didn't stir, she just shrugged and waited for both boys to get out of the fountain themselves. As expected, Satoshi wasn't happy at all.

Wiping his classes clean – which was a hard task, considering that everything was saturated – the vampire scowled angrily; the first actual full emotion any of them had witnessed for a long time. It was shocking; and very, very amusing. "What is wrong with him? Does he have some sort of mental problem?" he snapped, not finding the situation even the least bit funny.

The blonde shrugged nonchalantly at this, "I guess you could say that he was trying to help is all."

This got both boys blinking, not understanding a thing of what that meant. Golden eyes rolled in exasperation; really, she had no idea on why males had to be so oblivious to everything around them? The only thing that ever seemed to get through their skulls was fighting or about to fight something large and scary. Oh sure, she was in the same mind, but at least she was really thick in the skulls at times like these.

And as for Dark… he was just an idiot. A complete and utter moron with no brain and absolutely no understanding on how to 'help' people and the like. Annoying, annoying and even more annoying was how she had actually grown used to his attitude and usually stupid and careless mistakes.

Ah, the mysteries of how the human heart actually works.

She snapped out of her thoughts when she noticed that both vampire and human were watching her intently, obviously waiting for some sort of explanation on her last sentence that explained her boyfriend-not-said-out-loud actions of being an idiot and a half.

"Well, we both agreed that you," she jabbed a finger at the dripping vampire, "have absolutely no social life and that Daisuke is the only one you have ever talked to, am I correct?"

"… I suppose. Unless you mean family," the vampire mumbled, seeing as the blonde wasn't about to let him off without answering something first. He stared at the water surrounding him, but jerked instantly up when Daisuke gasped.

"… What'd you do to Dark?" the redhead asked first before remembering why he was so shocked, "It's cold in here! We better get out before the cleaning guys get here or something," he tried to stand up, but was unable to and flopped back with a sigh.

Krad looked back at the purple-haired adolescent without much care and then offered the two a hand up; which drenched her sleeve in the process. "You two really shouldn't be sitting in there. And I though Dark needed some medical attention, so I brained him."

Satoshi raised an eyebrow, pushing Daisuke to go first, "You brained him." He repeated, like he wasn't sure what she had meant by that.

"Yeah, so?"

"You… brained _him_."

"Well, Krad-san's just that sort of person," the redhead offered helpfully, as the blonde pulled the vampire up as well. They were both completely and utterly saturated and still dripping wet. She scowled at this and gave the unconscious lump another helpful kick.

"Well, come on. You two need to dry off or something before you get sick with something."

She led them off, but not before the redhead could turn around quizzically, "You're going to leave Dark lying there?"

Sighing at this, Krad hit her forehead, "I'm not going to drag him along with us at the moment. Unless you're both offering to do that…" she trailed off and waved a vague hand around, "I'll go get him after got you two out of those saturated things and dried off. The inn should have something, right?"

"If you mean rooms and clothes and stuff, yeah," nodded Daisuke slowly, still looking back until the vampire dragged him off before he could hurt himself again. The blonde was muttering under her breath as she walked them off like – sad to say – an annoyed mother with children who could not be controlled; oh, the horrors of that particular description.

In truth, she was slightly worried about leaving Dark there, and there were people awake and stuff, walking around and doing other things, so she expected to find Dark being poked by curious little kids by the time she got back. Hopefully that wasn't too long away.

000

"Really, Hiwatari-kun, you look better if you're not hiding in the shadows as much."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Of course you know what I'm talking about," Daisuke leaned forward, smiling, "If you just went out a bit more and wasn't so antisocial and cold, then you'd make a lot of friends."

Sitting there with a look of disbelief on his face, Satoshi just shook his head, "I don't like company."

"And that's why you argue with people and give them the cold shoulder!" the redhead scowled at this, but it wasn't all that threatening like. With, who had been through the entire ordeal in the folds of the boy's cloak was now sitting right in front of the fire and 'kyu'-ing happily, completely ignoring his master and the vampire.

Krad had managed to get them a room with a fireplace and had left the rest to them, telling them that she would soon be back with a – hopefully – semi-conscious Dark and all, and then she was gone. The room was a small, slightly stuffy place, more for just one person, but neither boy seemed to care about that little fact and, at that very moment, Daisuke was trying to convince Satoshi that it was okay to talk to people. Of course, the vampire was unwilling to accept such a belief.

So now the two of them were sitting in front of the fireplace, wearing some really weird-brown-whatever-garments and half-conversing, half-arguing. Not that it was getting them anywhere so it was all great and everything; yes, everyone was happy.

Unless the blonde was screaming at Dark again for being an asshole, but whatever. That didn't involve them in any way – they hoped – so it was just best to sit back, relax, and enjoy each other's company to the extent as to wonder what the hell were they supposed to do next.

Daisuke pulled away from leaning forwards too much and looked up at the ceiling, unaware of the fact that the vampire was still staring at him and wandered back into his own thoughts. It was funny to think that they had been apart from each other for three years and nothing had really changed at all. And that alone was hilarious but then… wait, why the hell was he thinking like that and why did it seem to implicate in his mind that he and Satoshi were together or something? Wait, why hell did he think just that and now he had a headache and it wasn't all that great and… ow…

Rubbing his temples and closing his eyes, the redhead mumbled something incoherent while the vampire continued to analyse him with a skeptic expression on his face. Wow, if this kept up we could all safely say that he was going through an emotional crisis.

The fact that they weren't saying anything at the moment was bugging him and that said a lot, not being the sort to get into a conversation in the first place. But then again, it was a particular someone, blah blah blah. Grumbling in the back of his mind, Satoshi tried to banish these thoughts out of his head. He was going round in circles again and it hurt. Yes, it actually hurt.

Not to mention the words that that crazy girl had said a while back stuck in his mind, and yes, he had admitted it then but was now in denial so that was that. He was not going to say anything about human emotions that probably meant something yet didn't and all that annoying and confusing junk. Wow, he likes to think a lot as well.

Silence filled the small, cramped room and there was still no sign of Krad or Dark anywhere. Probably abandoned them and it was still only oh so early in the morning. Too much had happened and if he ever saw that crazy purple-haired guy again, he was going to… well, not kill him, but maul him to an inch of his life. Yes, that sounded about right.

"They're sure taking their time, aren't they?" asked Daisuke, finally breaking the silence that surrounded them. Satoshi nodded once and then there was more silence.

"Kyu..." it seemed that even With was getting fed up with it.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

Sadly, no one was around to save them from this awfully awkward silence/moment and one of them would have to do _something, _even if it just ended up being a flippant comment about the weather. Then again, neither one was thinking in that direction, were they?

So, after a long, long time later… (five seconds to be precise) the vampire snapped. "Niwa."

"Yeah?"

The vampire leaned forward slightly, at a loss as to what to say next. Really, what was he supposed to do now? Daisuke was just staring at him, waiting for him to say something else, but now that he had nothing else to say… well… uh… yes, he was incredibly lost now.

"I…"

The redhead blinked.

"I…"

Damn those humans and their stupid ways of expressing themselves or whatever.

"I…"

There was a word after that… what was it again?

"…"

Dammit, he wasn't going to be able to say it.

"…?" this was Daisuke.

Besides, what would happen if the boy didn't feel the same way? It was all wrong in the end, and even he wasn't stupid enough to figure that little piece of information out.

"I…" he gave up, "Never mind, it wasn't anything important." Satoshi instantly regretted this as the boy's face fell in disappointment, but he knew that he was never going to be able to say it and that was final.

The redhead shuffled closer to the rather confused/annoyed vampire and brushed some bangs out of the way. Satoshi's eyes widened at this, still very much lost as he was at the beginning of this very meeting. Damn them all.

"Hiwatari-kun…"

Then fate decided to be cruel again as Krad burst into the room, Dark close behind. "Come on! You guy's ready yet? We gotta move it or lose it pronto, you two!"

Scrambling away at the sudden interruption, Daisuke tripped over his feet as he tried to grab all of his possessions. Completely ignoring the fact that he was in a sort of public, the redhead hurriedly changed back into his own clothes. "Why? What's going on?"

Dark was scowling out the window, "Well, let's just say that there are a crazy amount of people stumbling around and screaming about being permanently blind. It's amusing, but not much else." He rubbed the top of his head, where Krad had hit him.

"You know, that doesn't really help," pulling his supply bag over his shoulder, he blinked at the two older members of their group and Satoshi returned from wherever he had been, fully dressed and emotionless once more. "Krad-san?"

She smiled slightly as she, too, glanced out the window, "The Gate finally got repaired and now they've sent the entire army to try and find me and Dark. Kinda pointless; I would have thought they would think we were dead already."

With jumped on Daisuke's head, "Kyuu!"

"So does that mean…"

"Let's move before some of them come here. You can't trust them. And like hell I'm going to get dragged back there."

"And I completely agree with Krad."

The redhead sighed; "This is way too much to be happening in one morning…" he groaned, but followed them out. Satoshi was in the same thinking wavelength, and dammit, something had been going on… or was it just him?

Well he knew life; the peace just never lasted.

000

(coughs) They were so close… so very, very close. And the Gate's finally been fixed, after three long years of nothing. What happens? Well, you just have to wait and see XD

Replies:

Koway Oceshia: You have a point there, but Daisuke's got that thing with being naïve-like, and as you can see, Satoshi is at a loss for words. What, you liked the chickens? o.O Well, it all depends on what happens afterwards :D Thanks. And Dark and Krad will be arguing for a long time later… I just can't see them getting along for a long period of time…

neko-nya: Thanks! XD Whoa, you need to tell yourself to breathe a lot more then, right? And poor Krad has become sterorised (that's not even a word…)! Maybe they'll meet some while they run around the world (I never did mention the ocean here, did I?).

aki: Okay, I'm going to work on it as hard as I can! Until my brain flops out, anyway.


	6. Phase Five: So That's How it is

Disclaimers: The legion of the undead are suing me, so no questions asked.

Warnings: Rambling, rambling, and absolutely no sense of direction… go me.

Other: How long has it been since I updated this? I have no idea… sorry for the wait and the poor quality of the chapter…

000

_"When they meet again, something more terrifying and evil will awaken. Something long since sealed away will break free: leaving death and destruction in its wake. Will they be able to handle it again? Or is this the end of the road?"_

Phase Five: So That's How it is…

"So where are we going then?" Daisuke asked as they rushed out of the inn. Krad, who was leading the way for one reason or another, looked around hurriedly, frowning to herself.

"Actually, I have no idea," she replied shortly, still looking around her. "They'll probably be able to travel fast once they get adjusted to this area, so just walking in the opposite direction won't work, sadly."

Dark popped up next to her, "Why not?"

"For one thing," the blonde raised her eyebrows at Dark, "A good part of traveling will be out in the open, so we'll be open targets. And we need to go undercover somehow."

"You're making it sound like they're going to kill you or make you into some sort of sacrifice," Satoshi couldn't help but comment, getting over his initial hostility or whatever it was, "And that they're the worst people in the world… or worlds, should I say."

With agreed with the vampire readily, "Kyuu!"

"With, not now," the redhead said, tugging his pet off his head and tucking him into the folds of his cloak so there was no chance of losing him. "But that means that it's nearly impossible to leave the town without being seen and we can't wait until night because that's hours away."

"And you just worked that out yourself?" Dark asked sarcastically over his shoulder, somehow managing not to trip over his own feet as they ran around rather pointlessly. "Not to mention that this is a pretty small town. Hey Krad," he jerked his head back to the front, "Do you think they're superstitious about gravestones or anything?"

The blonde stopped looking around at this and gave him a long look, "What kinda question is that supposed to pose on me?"

The purple-haired adolescent scratched the back of his head and shrugged, "I dunno. I was thinking that maybe if they were too scared to venture in a particular place we might be able to hide there…"

"I seriously believe that you've gone insane."

The two glared at one another at this and Satoshi growled in frustration. He was sick of the two fighting the bickering and arguing all the time, but the thought of interfering – which would inevitably pull him into the argument – was too much for him to take. And seeing that he was at the breaking point in which, being a vampire, could mean very, very weird things, he tried to ignore them and looked around. The people who were now out were indeed writhing around and screaming something about their eyes, but other than that there wasn't much else that would make a good hiding place. He turned when he heard Daisuke snap his fingers.

"I've got it!" he said triumphantly as he pulled Dark away from his glaring match with Krad, "I mean, at least I think I do."

Once Dark had broken eye contact, Krad was all business again, "What do you mean by that?"

"My old teacher lived here, he might be able to help us," the redhead explained quickly, now leading the way, "I mean, he wasn't all that much older than us, so unless he's moved or something, or got evicted… or he blew up his house, then…" he turned a sharp corner and suddenly set off at a run. Bewildered, the others ran after him. It wasn't long before they found themselves complete and utterly lost, which was actually impossible as the town itself was pretty much miniscule, but that wasn't the point and the fact remained that Daisuke seemed intent on finding whoever it was.

But no one expected him to suddenly skid to a halt, which resulted in everyone cannoning into each other and falling into a rather painful heap. Dark mumbled something about the younger generation (which led to being hit over the head by Krad) but the redhead didn't seem to notice as he attempted to sit up. Of course, that was impossible as the other three were piled on top of him, but once that was sorted out he managed to wobble over to a small shack-looking place and knock on the door.

The first thing that popped into Dark's (rather eccentric/nonexistent) mind was that some crazy axe murderer lived there (there was no reason for this thought; he was just bored out of his mind, and tired, and annoyed, and in pain…) and was disappointed with a dark-skinned brunette opened the door. Whether he was tanned or was just born that way, no one could tell and, really, they honestly didn't care about it, so they just stared. All except Daisuke, who obviously recognized the guy and just smiled. But… then again, he was always smiling, so that could have meant anything…

"Argentine-kun!"

"… You're still alive?"

Something about that comment was just too weird to really be any sort of greeting and Dark was the first to actually say something about it.

"What's with people these days?" he grumbled loudly, "Do we live with the insane people now!"

Krad raised an eyebrow at this outburst, "Considering who I'm currently standing next to, I'd have to say yes."

"What, but I'm…" Dark caught on quickly, "Krad!"

"What?"

"Stop insulting me!"

"Hey, it's not my fault you have a brain the size of a kumquat…"

While the two glared at each other, Argentine merely blinked, not showing much emotion other than being irritated, but then again, it seemed to be the only expression of emotion he had at the moment. Daisuke was still smiling (not that that was much of a surprise) and Satoshi was staring at the brunette with a neutral face, although… he might have been glaring; who knew anymore.

"I'm assuming that you're here for good reason then, Daisuke," he finally muttered, stepping back to allow them access, "and as your friends," he used the term loosely – that was, _very _loosely – "are making a scene, I think it's best that they argue inside where people can't stare at them."

"Thanks, and… sorry about them," Daisuke stepped into the building, closely followed by Satoshi, who was dragging Dark in behind him, "They just seem to love to argue a lot, no matter what the situation. Funny to think that even when they're being chased they can argue about the smallest of things…"

Argentine closed the door behind them with a snap, "You're being followed?" he noted the redhead's nod, "Well, that explains as to why you're not with your sister. Or here at all, as a matter of fact."

"Eheh…"

They were led into the living room, which wasn't much aside from lounges and a coffee table that had obviously seen better days as such and as they all took seats (Dark and Krad still arguing) Argentine disappeared for a moment in the other room.

It hadn't really changed a bit, Daisuke had to admit as he looked around him. Not that that was a bad thing and all, but it was kind of scary, seeing as it had been… twelve years? More or less, and having it look exactly the same since he'd last been there, training with his twin… at the age of… five…

000

"_Daichi! You did it again!" a five-year-old Daisuke half screamed as he hid behind the sofa fearfully, "It's gonna eat you as well!"_

"_I didn't do it!" his twin hid behind another sofa and pouted, "It just popped out!"_

"_Argentine's gonna kill you again!"_

"_No he won't! He wouldn't do that!"_

"_Daichiiiii--"_

_A giant blob-like-solid substance hit the ceiling and showered the two children with debris and, needless to say, they were scared out of their wits end. Not that such an occurrence had been the first time for them to witness; and the reason always seemed to be Daichi as well…_

_It wasn't long before the blob-like-solid-substance-whatever was destroyed though, and the person behind its demise wasn't the happiest of people at that point and time. Daichi was the first to react._

"_Argie! Hey, how's it?" she grinned innocently from her hiding spot while Daisuke slowly edged as far away from her as possible. The brunette, who was three years older than them, just stood there, his eye twitching just slightly. He waved an arm around in exasperation._

"_It was you again, wasn't it?" he finally said, attempting to calm down. By this time, Daisuke was practically out of the room and hiding in the closet that was conveniently located under the stairs._

_The redhead blinked, "Me what?"_

_Argentine hit his forehead and groaned in frustration, muttering something about how it was a good thing his parents weren't currently at home._

"_Look, you're going to have to learn to control it one day, otherwise you're going to hurt or maim someone you didn't intend to. That's the whole point as to why I'm training you two in the first place. That and because of your parents, but whatever. You have to listen to my instructions carefully."_

"_Right…" it was clear that Daichi wasn't really honing in on what he was saying._

_Argentine hit his forehead again._

000

As odd as it was, the three had actually become some form of friends during their short time there and the destruction of the living room by Daichi's various summoning attempts could be seen clearly. In fact, that in itself was kind of scary. But he wasn't about to ask about it.

Argentine reentered the room, muttering to himself while carrying a tray with tea… or something. Must have been a hospitable thing, as he was scowling before placing it on the table and sitting down himself. Dark and Krad were STILL arguing and Satoshi was taking in his surroundings with an odd look on his face. Whether it was him just being too wary or apprehensive or whatever… uhm… did it matter? No, he didn't really think so.

"So what's the deal this time?" the brunette asked, waving a hand vaguely to indicate that they had to serve themselves. Not that anyone was paying much attention and all, but it was all part of being the host etc, etc. not that he'd asked for it and all. "And how come, after so many years, it's only now that you decide to come and visit?"

Daisuke inclined his head, "Well, it's not like we get to run around freely everyday? And I had school and stuff and even my aunt and uncle didn't want me to go in the first place. Daichi was highly opposed to it as well." He grimaced slightly for some reason, but said nothing else. "Did you hear about the whole chaotic mess about the Thirteen Stars then?"

"If I'd been living under I rock, I'd say no," Argentine snorted and crossed his arms, eyes narrowing, "So you and these freaks did it all and – I use the saying loosely – 'saved the world'?"

"They're not freaks."

"They sure look it."

It seemed that Argentine hadn't become less arrogant (or whatever he was) either. Ignoring Daisuke's frown, the brunette leaned back, "So what about it? Has the world gone haywire again?"

"No… just their part of the world," the redhead pointed over at the two glaring at one another. "To put it simply, they ran away from home, the transition between their home and this world was completely destroyed, and it's only now that they've got it fixed and they're pretty much being chased, so we just need to stay here until night or something and leave town… I guess?" He looked over to the rest of the group, as the idea had just popped into his head. Satoshi shrugged at this, still looking around him, and he was being ignored by the older two… who were still refusing to give up on their staring contest.

Raising both eyebrows at this, the brunette just stared at him, "Well… I suppose I have no reason as to why I shouldn't allow you to stay until the night. But…" he frowned this time, "why the hell are they being chased in the first place?"

"… I don't know." Daisuke blinked.

The vampire came to a successful conclusion on how to gain Dark's attention by throwing some scalding tea on him. Of course this did mean a lot of bodily pain and throbbing eardrums, but it seemed that the purple-haired adolescent had finally lost the staring contest.

"Damn you!" he yelled. He looked like he was ready to tackle Satoshi on the spot, but Krad caught him in a head lock and managed to hold him back without too much trouble, "Let go!"

"You moron, you're acting like an idiot here," she snorted, shaking her head. He scowled at this, struggled for a moment, then finally gave up, sulking to himself. Krad sat back and looked around curiously. "So what was your question back there?"

"We were just wondering as to why you're so scared of being caught by these people, that's all." Daisuke filled her in.

The blonde blinked, "Well, that's a very interesting question," she rolled her eyes sarcastically, "Then again, both Dark and I never did like what was set up for us at home. I mean, as 'royalty'…" she used the quotation marks, "We've always been given a close eye on. And I had to wear dresses-" she grimaced at this, "-and they didn't even want us to be friends for thirteen years and I guess we just couldn't take it anymore. That or it was all his fault. Him and his stupid ideas." She jabbed a finger in Dark's general direction and then fell silent.

"You know, you could stop insulting me all the time," muttered Dark as he took a swig of… tea/coffee/whatever Argentine had offered/given them, "But she has a point. They're just so… uptight about life and stuff. And the girls there scared the freaking hell out of me. I don't know why I didn't run away beforehand."

"Because you didn't want to leave Krad-san behind?" offered Daisuke helpfully. The purple-haired adolescent nodded vaguely at this, yet when the process ran through his mind, he snapped right back into reality.

"What! No!"

Satoshi rolled his eyes and Argentine, seeing this, smirked.

"Seems like you all have a lot of fun… and you get along," the sarcasm was so obvious only a deaf person wouldn't have been able to notice it.

The vampire stared at him, "You have no idea…"

000

And thus concludes the chapter. Nothing much to say on the matter except I have no idea on how long it's going to take to get anywhere… so yeah. It's all great. Hope I haven't annoyed too many people with this… pointlessness.

And did you notice how many times I used the word 13 (it sure felt like a lot to me)? And the fact that Dark and Krad spent a hell of a lot of time glaring at one another and arguing? I'll have to deal with that later…

Oh, and to apologize to all those poor people waiting in for this chapter… or something… heck, maybe you don't care… uhm… yeah… I have a website for this fic! XD It's only half done and rather pointless, but oddly amusing at the same time, so go check it out XD And yeah, I'm still attempting to fine tune it… address is http/seena58. index.html or just click the webpage thingy on my bio… yeah…

Replies:

neko-nya: We could just make our own clothes for probably half the price in terms of clothes shopping. XO But noooooo--… muh… I think my brain flopped out.

Koway Oceshia: Chickens… I've never understood them… XD Dark has a fools luck, I have to admit… or he's just too much of an idiot to get into enough trouble in the first place :) Hey look, I finally updated… (faints)

Makurayami Ookami: They live such hard, cruel lives… XD

0.o K-chan: Finally updated… I can't believe how long I took… sorry?

ginny brenn: That's where the greatness of stories comes in, I think. I mean, how's it gonna be good if you don't enjoy it? Thanks XD

Mizu no Sara: Uwaiii—thanks (takes Dark doll and sits it next to a Krad doll) I'm so glad that you enjoyed this and… uhm… yeah. Here's the next chapter XD I will attempt to make more updates… but I think my brain's taken a turn for the worst…


	7. Phase Six: Run, Hide, Whatever

Disclaimers: Owns it not. Maybe.

Warnings: More randomness, oddness, plain confusing (?). Eh, whatever.

Other: I actually managed another chapter. (rolls eyes) Yeah, great.

000

_"When they meet again, something more terrifying and evil will awaken. Something long since sealed away will break free: leaving death and destruction in its wake. Will they be able to handle it again? Or is this the end of the road?"_

Phase Six: Run, Hide, Whatever

Argentine, seeing as all four were just sitting there as bored as bored could be, got up and rolled his eyes, "Well, seeing as you ARE going to be staying here for a couple of hours still, I might as well show you around a bit. Not like there's anything else any of you can do that won't tear the place down."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" asked Dark, eyes narrowing down. It seemed that he was getting ready to begin another argument that he would probably lose to but currently didn't care because he was always losing arguments anyway so yeah. What difference did it make? Not much, in his opinion.

"It means that we aren't doing anything and you're going to wreck the place if you're too bored. Remember when you were five?" Krad replied coolly, cutting, what would have been an argument, short. "And I don't see why not. I mean, it can't be that big of a house…" when they had first arrived, it had looked quite a bit like a shack, but heck, the interior seemed well furnished.

Daisuke smiled at this, something dancing in his eyes that no one could clearly identify, "Maybe, but I used to come here with Daichi, so I know my way around." He looked over at his former 'teacher', "Why don't you show those two around and I'll take Hiwatari-kun?"

"Trying to find some bonding time alone?" asked Dark innocently.

He got a blank look at this, "Huh? What are you talking about?"

The adolescent would have replied to this, but Satoshi decided to splash more tea on him; luckily for Dark, by this point of time the tea had gone cold so now he was just soaking wet with it.

"Why do you have to keep doing that!"

"Because you're a complete moron."

"Why you--"

"He has good aim though, I'll give him that," Argentine commented, walking towards the doorway, "Come on, you better get changed or something. Unless you want to stay like that for the rest of the day."

Giving the vampire a glare, Dark got up and headed to where the brunette was standing. Krad, who decided to stay sitting, just said vaguely, "I'll stay here for a bit. I need to think."

Argentine shrugged at this, "Have it your way then. And Daisuke, don't break anything. You know the rules and they haven't changed a bit."

"Okay!" the redhead smiled brightly. Once they were gone, he turned to Satoshi, who stared out the window. "You know, you have to stop hurting Dark-kun so much and all…"

"He deserved it." was all the vampire said in his wonderfully monotonous tone. "After making such stupid comments, and that stuff three years ago."

"You're still on about that then?" shaking his head, he grabbed the vampire's hand and led him out of the room to allow Krad some peace and quiet, "Besides, what did he mean by that whole bonding time thingy?" If he had turned around at this point, he might have noticed that Satoshi had become quite uncomfortable about the topic.

"He was probably just joking around like the idiot he is," he finally said, trying as hard as he could to sound normal, "Not that it matters either way… where are we going?"

"It's a secret," at this, Daisuke did turn around and winked and the vampire blinked for a moment, still allowing himself to be dragged along. Okaaaaay…. This was beginning to get a bit creepy…

000

Contemplation was never something she enjoyed all that much, but now really wasn't the time to be complaining about such trifling matters and Krad needed to clear her mind of all doubts as soon as possible. Especially with the fact that if they were caught, they would have to hurt quite a few of their own people to escape. And although she never had any sort of attachment to them…

It was just too confusing to comprehend. She sighed, leaning back on the lounge she was sitting on. Closing her eyes, she could feel the sun's warmth filtering through the curtains and windows in the room. Questions popped into her mind, but she didn't pay them great attention in the end, and yet they nagged at her.

Why was she running away? She wasn't mortal and didn't belong here, so then, why was it that this was happening? If she had been anyone else, she would have been ecstatic about the thought of returning home; but she wasn't anyone else, she was Krad, and Krad wasn't happy at all. This place… this realm with humans were not perfect, were constantly changing their minds and getting into fights, and for some reason it just felt… right. Like, comfortable and warm and fuzzy and… no, she did not just think the word fuzzy. That was just absurd.

She opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling for a moment, not really expecting all that much in the end. She had no reason to be so attached to a world that was not her own. Home… back in the Sun Kingdom, was her home, but then, why didn't it feel like it?

Was it the rules and judgments placed upon her? Was it because she would probably end up getting married to a freak that she hated terribly? Or was it due to the fact that she had been tailed everywhere ever since the fateful prediction had been made in the first place?

Krad didn't know, didn't really care, and knew some things that she wanted badly but would have never gotten it back 'home': the freedom to just be herself, the allowance of any sort of weapon (she was a _woman_ and women don't use weapons, as they had said once), being able to wear something other than a dress and her friendship with Dark. The blonde was still baffled as to why they hadn't truly allowed that.

Sure, part of the reason must have been due to the thirteen stars and all, but there had to be more. She got the feeling it had something to do with their relation going further than that, but what was the problem? They got along fine and fought alongside, so… well, that just didn't make any sense anymore.

And while she was on that topic; about Daisuke and Satoshi…

Unable to help it, the blonde smirked at the thought. They were actually quite cute together, but neither one seemed willing to make the first move. Sure, she and Dark had agreed on 'going out' (a hard thing to do, as they seemed to be traveling together) in essence, and had yet to say it out loud at all, but those two… well, knowing them, it just might never happen.

Or they may have changed over the years, but at this point, she was inclined to disagree on that thought. They still seemed the same since the one week they had been together at all and… wait, was she that good at judging character now? Well, that was something to wonder about.

But anyway, back to her own problems. It was just the sort of thing to make her day and all; she rolled her eyes at the thought. And it looked like it was time to face the 'wrath' (a term used so loosely that it wasn't funny) of both her parents and Dark's parents. Not that they couldn't handle it easily enough, but the thought of having to see the place in all its glory after trying to avoid it for years and years and years…

God, that was just too tiring on the brain.

And, well, she was accepted here, to an extent. Strangers just saw her as another mercenary and paid her and she was allowed to do whatever she wanted as long as it was within the laws. And that was about it. No questions asked; no demands or regulations about how she acted and spoke like, they just didn't care. And she liked it that way.

Well, if they even tried to get her back to 'where she belonged' she was going to give them a fight they would never forget.

That was, the fact that she did have the ability to set alight anything within a thirty meter radius; they had every right to be cautious.

000

"So what's with you and her anyway?" asked Argentine as he stood outside the bathroom door while Dark grumbled from within. They had been there for the past three minutes, which didn't make much sense as all they had to do was force Dark to change into something else… but he was stubborn, so the first few minutes had just been verbal abuse.

But then the purple-haired adolescent-dude-whatever had locked himself in the bathroom and absolutely refused to get out. It didn't sound like he was being sick or anything, but just kept on muttering to himself; as if hoping that he would get an answering voice in his head.

There was a cough from the other side, "What are you still doing standing out there?"

"Why? I live here," replied Argentine coolly.

"Oh? Oh yeah…" how he managed to forget such a vital piece of information, the brunette didn't know and was too afraid to ask. Actually, he wasn't afraid – or so he told himself – just… well, he didn't want to know and that was all. "Anyway, what was with that first question anyway?"

"You and the blonde… Krad, is it?"

"What about us?"

"What's with you and her?" he repeated, getting annoyed again, "I mean, you two were practically trying to kill each other mentally… or something. And you two kept glaring at each other…" He paused, thinking it over, "Are you guys in love or something?"

There was the distinct sound of something within that little room being smashed, and Argentine hoped it wasn't anything too expensive, "What the hell made you come down to such a stupid, stupid conclusion!" spluttered Dark.

_Denial, _was the first thing that ran through the brunette's head; right after the worry of replacement items, of course. "Oh, I don't know. You two seem to be pretty well off to me. Why else would you have been traveling together when it's so clear that you want to kill each other off." Actually, that was a bit of an exaggeration.

"We used to know each other when we were little, duh," snorted Dark, "And because it seemed safer that way, we ended up at the same place at the same time, okay? There's nothing between us."

"Right, whatever," Argentine rolled his eyes, although the effect was completely wasted, "But would that mean it would be okay if I asked for her hand in marriage?"

There was the sound of something incredibly large and solid (and probably expensive) smashing: he was going to have to force this guy to pay for it.

"You said what!"

"Jeez, stop overreacting already and get out of the bathroom." Was all he said and shook his head. Something was wrong with these people, really. And here he was, thinking that Daichi alone had some sort of mental issue at the age of five. At least Daisuke hadn't turned out like that…

Funnily enough Dark did as he was told, still grumbling though, and his mere presence was beginning to irk on the brunette, who was really considering now about throwing him out. But it was only due to the fact that he knew Daisuke that he didn't do such a thing, but really now.

He wasn't the least surprised that the purple-haired adolescent was glaring at him pointedly, but shrugged in response before walking back to where they had practically abandoned the blonde. Krad just stared at the two of them blankly, not saying anything until she properly weighed the situation.

Then she cleared her throat, "What took you two so long?"

"He had constipation," Argentine lied coolly, pointing back at Dark, who could have exploded but then just pulled a face. Wait… did that mean that it was true then?

She blinked slowly at this, and then said slowly, "Okay then…"

Deciding that now was the time to cut off anymore awkward situations for the time being, the brunette turned around, "Come on then; I'll show you around while you're here."

000

Daisuke turned around to face Satoshi, smiling, "So then, what do you think about it?"

"You mean besides the fact that we're high up and the sun's probably pounding a hole into my head?" the vampire shot back. For some odd reason he was feeling vaguely woozy, but that just didn't make any sense at all; he thrived on flying and high spaces, didn't he?

So anyway, there they were, up on some really, really, _really _high balcony that overlooked the rest of the village and a good part of the fields and wildlife that surrounded it. How this place actually managed to have such a… construction in it in the first place was a complete mystery to any of them, but the view really was nice, one had to admit.

But back to Satoshi's current state of… distress (?) he wasn't exactly having the time of his life. The mortal, however, was having fun staring down at the figures that passed to and fro in the daily activities they had and then focused his attention on the position of the sun, calculating how long it would take until dusk came.

He felt weak, strangely enough, and the vampire just couldn't place as to why. Was it all the exposure to the sun or something? Or was it more… hostile? He wasn't all that sure and hated having to dwell on it, seeing as he was being given another chance alone with the redhead. Not that these thoughts didn't pass through his mind, but the mere threat of collapsing and dying wasn't exactly going to leave him sane now, was it?

Finally noticing that something was wrong, Daisuke hurried over to where the vampire stood, which was right back the trapdoor they had had to climb through to get where they were now. He was frowning with concern.

"Hiwatari-kun? Are you alright?"

Did he really have to ask that? It was kind of obvious he wasn't 'alright', as humans tended to ask. Oh well, just humor them and maybe he wouldn't notice the difference, "No… I'm fine…" that and the fact that he would never succumb to some stupid illness-thingy-whatever. "Isn't being high up here… likely to have us exposed?"

"You mean by the people chasing after the other two?" the redhead asked for clarification but didn't wait for an answer; not that Satoshi felt like he was able to do even that, "Nah… they don't even know who we are, do they? So we should be fine up here. Besides, the view's great."

Right, so now his brain had died out on him and he had just asked a completely pointless and highly unintellectual question. Now that that was settled, what more could be said? These were the sorts of things that just kept running around the vampire's mind as whatever it was affecting him took its toll on him.

It seemed that he must have looked worse off than he expected to be because before he knew what was going on, Daisuke was half shaking him.

"Hiwatari-kun! What's wrong?"

Oh, who knew, who knew. Maybe it was time to begin panicking.

Wait, he was already dead, though, wasn't he? Well, he wasn't mortal so…

Now he was just confusing himself and worrying the human more.

Well, what was he supposed to say?

He had no idea anymore.

000

While Argentine became their little tour guide – although they were pretty much the same age – Krad was aware of the little fact that the saying 'looks can be deceiving' was very true to this place, and if they had been left to their own devices, they would have long since been lost. Dark wasn't paying much attention at all, she thought with a little annoyance, honestly, he could be such an idiot at times and still…

A plain door with an odd looking plaque on it made her stop, "What's in there?" she asked curiously, not knowing why but feeling the need to walk in there for one reason or another.

The brunette turned around at this and blinked at the door, "… Oh, that place. It's the library, I guess you could say. Actually, now that I think about it…" he walked over to it, pulled the door open and bellowed down there, "Aine? Are you down there?"

Confused as they were, they figured it must be someone he knew, as he pulled his head back, "Nope, I thought not. Where the hell did she go…" he grumbled to himself.

Choosing the safer path of not asking, the blonde shrugged, "Can we look down there?"

Dark, for one, was appalled, "Why would you want to go down there!"

"Just because you can't read at all--" she began tauntingly.

"Just go, then," Argentine cut in sharply, flicking some sort of switch and already descending on the traditional stone steps, "I don't want to have to scrape someone's innings once you two are done."

This made Dark pull a face, "Ew…"

"My thoughts exactly," agreed the brunette grimly before they all followed him down to where the library was located. For who knew what awaited them there… actually, not much aside from old books and a lot of dust. Oh joy.

Now, he really had to wonder how Daisuke and that vampire were doing… wherever they were… well, they would be fine; the redhead, aside from being clumsy and naïve at times, wasn't exactly stupid and could protect himself just well. But still…

000

Blah. Is Satoshi dying? Will Dark ever admit that he does like Krad, and will anyone explain what's going on? Who knows… who knows…

And due to the fact that have changed things again… uhm… yeah, I guess they really didn't like us replying on these… so you'll get your replies otherwise, except for the anonymous ones, as so:

chrnoskitty: Thanks—

ginny brenn: Aw… thanks XD Glad you liked it.

And everyone gets a cookie for being so patient. :)


	8. Phase Seven: Vampires Need What?

Disclaimers: Would it be considered fanfiction if I owned it?

Warnings: More OCs and… uhm… Satoshi talks a lot? Freaky…

Other: Got another chapter down. This has to be one of my favourites; maybe it has something to do with the fact that Satoshi _finally_ acts like what he's supposed to be: a vampire. And he explains quite a bit about it as well XD

000

_"When they meet again, something more terrifying and evil will awaken. Something long since sealed away will break free: leaving death and destruction in its wake. Will they be able to handle it again? Or is this the end of the road?"_

Phase Seven: Vampires Need What?

Panic wasn't one of Daisuke's strong points. Or was that thinking straight while his friend/companion seemed to be dying of something? Not that the question of Satoshi being able to die in the first place didn't pop into his brain was half a second; he had shoved that away because he just couldn't take the risk. And the fact that the vampire was currently hunched over and gasping for breath wasn't helping matters either.

"Hiwatari-kun, can you tell me what's wrong?" he asked, wondering why he was trying that as it looked like Satoshi wasn't about to start talking anytime soon. If he was even able to do that it would have been astounding.

The redhead gnawed his bottom lip, unable to work out what he should do as he had never attended to an ill vampire. Were vampires even capable of getting sick? Apparently, yes. And here it was right in front of him and he had no clue on what he was supposed to do now.

Well, the first sensible thing that came to him was to get Satoshi downstairs and probably call for help – Argentine might be more help than he was, although Dark and Krad were bound to distract them for one reason or another – but he really didn't get far because 1) the vampire practically collapsed on top of him and 2) he wasn't really all that physically strong in the first place anyway.

"Ni…wa…"

"Hiwatari-kun?" the redhead tried to stand up for a moment, but failed, and cursed himself. For one reason or another Satoshi seemed to be a deadweight; although it might have had something that he was more or less collapsing for some reason that he still couldn't work out yet. It was beginning to irk him. He felt the vampire shift slightly, trying to even his breath.

"… get…" he rasped out.

(…?) Oh, the problems of trying to work out what unfinished sentences mean. Get what? Who? Where? Not to mention that Daisuke couldn't move at all, even if he wanted to. And he didn't want to because of the fact that abandoning Satoshi may lead to the vampire's demise… if vampires could die, anyway.

He felt Satoshi grip onto his shirt almost desperately, and the thought of the vampire suddenly combusting popped into his mind. Wait, why was he thinking that? this was beginning to worry him… "Hiwa…"

"Kyuu!"

"GAH! With?.!" turning his head, Daisuke was surprised to see his familiar smiling up at him, wagging his tail… he'd completely forgotten that With hadn't been with him since they'd entered the house. "What are you doing here?.!"

With seemed to pout, "Kyuu… kyu kyu kyuuu!"

"Right, you're hungry," the redhead interpreted, "we'll get you something to eat later, but could you get the others here now? It's an emergency!"

Inclining his head slightly at the message he had just been given, With then saluted and bounced off back down the corridor and a flight of stairs. He was hoping that at least Argentine might understand what the demon-bunny was talking about, but was cut out of these thoughts when someone suddenly yanked at his shirt collar; he'd almost forgotten about Satoshi being there (despite the fact that the vampire seemed to be dying, and practically collapsed on top of him. Maybe he was having a horrible case of short-term memory today.).

"Hiwatari--" he began, but Satoshi suddenly seemed to convulse with a pained gasp, "Satoshi!"

This seemed to snap something in the vampire's mind (the redhead didn't know what, but it was better than watching someone suffering) and before Daisuke could work out what was going on, something light brushed against his throat, accompanied by an incredibly sharp pain.

He would have pulled back, but his mind seemed to have stopped working at this point and besides, Satoshi had a firm grip on him to stop him from keeping away.

Either way, the turn of events (and running around and all that) caused the boy to black out.

000

Satoshi pulled back as the redhead went limp in his arms, and cursed himself. This had been the last thing he'd wanted to happen, and it had happened. Why was it that fate seemed to hate them so badly and loved to mess with their minds with whatever it was worth? He couldn't stand it.

Okay, true, he hadn't fed properly for a while now, but he _never_ collapsed like this before in need for blood and the thought sickened him. Although it was rare for him to crave that actual sustenance, the fact that he'd never needed it more than twice a week (at the least) seemed to have his family in hysterics. If vampires could go into hysterics, anyway.

He traced a hand lightly over where he had just bitten and boy and sighed; he hadn't taken much from him, but he would still be out for an hour at the most. The vampire sat there for a moment, lost in thought before picking up the boy and taking him downstairs. During the whole matter he had heard the daemon tamer telling his familiar to find the others, so if they had received the message, then it wouldn't be long before…

"Frickin' crap! You killed him!" Dark exclaimed, more or less appearing out of nowhere. Satoshi was not impressed.

"No I didn't, you bastard," he snapped back, scowling, "Get out of the way before _I_ decide to kill you."

"You couldn't!"

"Want to bet your life on it?"

"You--"

"Dark, SHUT UP!" yelled Krad she was stomped up to him from behind and hit him over the head; hard. Argentine, who was carrying With, was frowning (either at the two arguing adolescents or because of the fact that Daisuke was now unconscious) but didn't make a comment of either the behavior or what the scene before him looked like.

The blonde, having found a way to shut Dark up, calmed down in three seconds and went over to where Satoshi was standing with the redhead. Her brow furrowed lightly as she traced a hand over the wound, muttering something under her breath. The simple healing spell shimmered around it for just a moment before fading away altogether and she stepped back.

"So," she stated firmly, crossing her arms at him. "Considering the fact that he's still breathing, you didn't kill him."

"No I didn't," he said bluntly. Were they all going to accuse him now for killing the boy when he wasn't even dead? Well, that was just great. His eyes scanned the other two for a moment (Dark was rubbing his head from the pain and Argentine was just scowling) but didn't say anything.

It was the brunette who came to suggest something next; "Come on, we better let him rest in a guestroom." He spun around and walked off again, the vampire following close behind.

"Well, who would have thought it," commented Krad thoughtfully as she watched the two walk off.

"Uhm, he's a vampire. Of course it was going to happen!" Dark pointed out firmly, shoving a hand under her nose; she batted it away non-commently. "But wait, didn't he just take blood from animals or something?"

"When we were there, yeah, but maybe it's not enough for them or something. And _he_ is a bit strange, even for a vampire."

"So we're in agreement, then. But wait, have we met any other vampires aside from him?"

"No, I don't think so…" silence. "Are you suggesting that all vampires are like him now? Perish the thought or you'd be dead."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"However your pea-sized brain wants to interpret it."

"…"

Smirking at her childhood-friend's-now-some-form-of-a-boyfriend's pout, the blonde continued, "None of us ever asked about his heritage, though, did we? I mean, how much do they actually get out of blood, for one thing, and I'm pretty sure he avoided taking blood from any one of us so that might have made him weaker…"

"Too true there."

Krad whipped around in shock. The voice that had just agreed with her definitely did not belong to Dark; unless it had gotten slightly more high-pitched and all. Tight-binding underwear? Nah.

The speaker just smiled at the shock on both their faces. Her hair just fell past her shoulders as she tucked a thick volume under her arm before continued to speak, "Animal blood isn't the sort of thing vampires are accustomed to, you see, and most of them tend to suck all the blood out of their victims, whether they need that much or not. Because they were formerly humans in a sense, it's only logical to say that they would need it even more then. Although killing people never really did make sense…"

She blinked when she saw that both Dark and Krad were just staring at her blankly, at a loss as to what to say; "Oh, by the way, I'm Aine. You must be Argentine's friends or acquaintances or something, otherwise he would have thrown you out already."

"… Okay…" the blonde pulled herself together, "I'm Krad and he's Dark." She poked the dazed person she was referring to and she snapped back to reality; or some sense of it.

"Well, it's nice to meet you," she beamed at the two of them. "Anyway, where is Argentine? I heard his voice before…"

"He was taking the others to a guestroom," Krad replied, only then wondering why it was _a_ guestroom and not _the_ guestroom. How many of them did they have in here anyway?

Aine took this in, nodding slightly, before bouncing down the hallway, "Well, it looks like we've got a lot of rooms to check in on, then, because he could have meant any one of the…" she counted them off on her fingers, "…twelve guestrooms we have scattered around the place."

Well, that was nice to know…

"Come on, then."

They both fell behind the brunette and held their own whispered conversation, in case she got offended and did something to them that would probably be too painful to mention.

"Hey, how old do you think she is, anyway?" asked Dark, frowning at her back.

"No idea, but she definitely doesn't act her age," Krad muttered back, shaking her head, "But I still don't get that whole thing with the vampire concept. For one, what's going to happen to Daisuke now?"

"You mean, is he going to turn into a vampire now?"

"Exactly."

"Hell, if he ends up with the same attitude with Hiwatari, I'm going to jump off a cliff because I wouldn't be able to stand it."

"Dealing with two vampires who'll end up with blood lust isn't my idea of fun."

"Yeah… well, let's just see if he's okay first and worry about the rest later."

That, scarily enough, had to be one of those few times when Dark actually said something intelligent that made sense. Maybe the world was coming to an end and no one had warned them…

000

"Hey," began Argentine, glancing sharply over to where Satoshi was currently standing, "Whether it's rude or not, I have to ask about all this."

"Go on."

"Because you took blood from Daisuke, what's going to happen to him now?" the brunette wasn't in for tact as he set out the entire situation's consequences and he waited for the vampire to answer.

Not that Satoshi hadn't been expecting this, "If you're wondering if he's going to end up as a vampire now, then no, that won't happen. He will be unconscious for an hour for understandable reasons, but you don't have anything to worry about that."

A raised eyebrow at this, "Oh?"

"I'm a 'true vampire', so I've never had, what you would call, a 'mortal life', and true vampires never have that affect on humans when they take blood. It's the 'undead' that can force humans into those transformations," Satoshi scowled, "Dying, they lose their soul and their minds, and the craving for blood is the only thing registered in them. Nothing can stop them, unless you count sunlight, and they have no pity, no heart; nothing." He sat on the bed, glancing over at the sleeping boy; "In the end, those are the ones that mortals should be trying to rid of."

"Well, that would explain a good deal about certain vampire attacks then," nodded Argentine, "But no hearts? I thought no vampire had hearts. Or blood running through their veins."

"No blood in our veins, yes, that's true, as for the heart…" the vampire shrugged; he would even attempt to try and explain it to the other. He knew that he might just be kidding himself this whole time and only wanted Daisuke for his blood, but he was so sure that it wasn't that… something much more that he couldn't understand and the fact that mortals seemed to fall in and out of it so easily…

He shook his head to clear his thoughts.

Argentine watched this with faint amusement, while With crawled around the room curiously before bouncing over to his master's bed. The vampire seemed to be struggling with an internal battle of some sort and it was quite funny to witness. But at the same time, his little explanation had cleared many things and at least now he knew that Daisuke wasn't about to sprout fangs and fly like a bat. Of course, that was only if the vampire was telling the truth.

Another question popped into his mind.

"The sunlight… would that mean…"

"The undead, being nothing more than rotting flesh and corpse, wither away in the light of day, as for the true vampires," Satoshi blinked at this; he'd never really put it into words before, "Well, I suppose we don't really get affected by it, although no one has ever tried. From what I know, all vampires, living or dead, have feared the light and have never gone close to it."

"So you'd be the first."

"I guess."

"Then what are true vampires weak against?"

The blunette turned to face him this time, "What does it matter to you?"

It was clear that he wasn't about to talk about that, so Argentine let it drop; "You know, I think Daisuke likes you."

"… Is that so?"

"Clearly," Argentine smirked, getting back to being himself; whatever that was, "he's always been a nice boy to guests and to me, to his sister, anyone, but he usually doesn't spend much time with them. Seeing as he actually offered to drag you along seems to say a lot. And that he's not scared of you." He added thoughtfully. "We used to talk about vampires a lot in theory, and he was scared beyond all belief. But seeing as he had only been three at the time, that might have been saying something…"

Satoshi didn't say anything to this and just sat there, either thinking about something or just staring blankly at the wall, it was hard to say. Argentine remained silent as well, half-considering walking off due to boredom and then wondered where Dark and Krad had disappeared off to. Hm… the possibilities…

What neither one of them actually expected was to have the door suddenly slam open; "HA! FOUND YOU ARGIE!"

"Where were you?" he asked back as Aine smiled at him calmly. Dark and Krad followed behind her and just stared around the room, which was quite large for it and seemed to be furnished in a way that might have indicated that they stole from antique stores.

"So, he's still breathing then?" asked Dark as soon as he saw where Daisuke was located. Satoshi just shot him another glare while the blonde looked around the room curiously.

Argentine, on the other hand, was arguing with the other girl for a moment before turning his attention to the others; "This is Aine, my sister."

Krad turned her head, "Yeah, I figured as much; you two look pretty similar in the end…" she frowned slightly at this, "Twins?" she guessed.

"Hm, no, not really," Aine grinned, "Oh, by the way, Argie, the others should be back real soon and is that a real vampire?.!" She seemed to lose her head as she caught sight of Satoshi, "Wow! That is so cool!"

Her brother yanked her back before she could do something stupid, "The others are coming back soon, you said? Well, come on then, we better go then otherwise…"

"Oh, fine…" she pouted, but allowed herself to be pushed out of the room rather forcefully. Dark blinked at this for a moment, unable to say anything before he suddenly recovered his power of speech.

"Would you call that a close family or a really distant one?" he asked.

"Probably close," replied Krad, taking a seat that was by the wall and getting right back down to business, "So how is Daisuke, really?"

"He'll be awake in a while and he'll be fine," Satoshi shrugged.

"So then…" she allowed her question to trail off meaningfully and the vampire raised an eyebrow.

"He's not going to turn into a vampire."

"Well, that's good then," she leaned back and sighed, staring at the ceiling, "I wonder how old this house is anyway… it's kinda creepy, middle-aged-like or something similar…"

"They look like they just stole a lot of stuff from an antique store," Dark suggested.

"Well, that too…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Kyuu?"

"…"

So much silence…

Giving up, the blonde stood up sharply and strode towards the door, hooking Dark's arm in the process; "Come on, Dark, let's see what the garden's like or something, I can't stand just sitting in here."

"What? Huh? Oh. Sure, whatever, okay?" he seemed to be out of it and just allowed himself to be dragged off and Krad turned, her free hand on the door knob.

"Come on, With, you're bored too, aren't you?" she asked.

"Kyuu!" With bounced over, but looked behind at his master.

"He'll be fine, trust us," she reassured him and the demon bunny hopped up before she shot the vampire an odd look before closing the door behind them.

Satoshi had no idea on what had just happened.

Not only that, but Daisuke seemed to be waking up as well.

… Great…

000

"Hey, welcome back!" Aine half-yelled when the front door opened. Argentine just kept his silence until they had all piled in and the door was closed.

"So how was this morning?"

"The monsters seem to be getting more aggressive, but I wouldn't be unduly worried yet."

"Alethea?"

"I've got someone covering for me. This morning wasn't too good in terms of business and I need to look something up."

Argentine nodded briefly at this, "By the way, we've got a couple of guests that need to come to your attention…"

000

Next chapter will probably focus more on Dark and Krad again… or attempt to, anyway. For some reason, they always fight when I try to get them into a more romantic (sarcasm intended) scenario. It's like they don't want it… XD Or it's me subliminally. And I have to question that whole true/undead vampire theory as well. I just didn't want Satoshi to be a rotting corpse, and didn't want Daisuke to be a vampire, so it all works out. And I have no idea as to why Satoshi was willing to talk so much to Argentine… (maybe he cracked?) Oh well, on with the story XD

ginny brenn: Yup, you got ahead of yourself and you're right :D Of course, I never did mention much about his heritage, so I needed it. Not to mention it allows the two to get closer together ;) (is that the wrong way to say it?) And here's the update! Hope it's to your liking!

(Hands out more cookies to reviewers for their patience)


	9. Special Phase: Celebrate Christmas

Disclaimers: Yeah… what? Urm… whatever.

Warnings: Randomness, rather pointless… oh wait, this is what I say all the time…

Other: A really, really, really pointless Christmas chapter set in this setting thingy… but, like… seven months after Waning Moon? (Although that makes no sense as they do split after this…) Just needed something Christmas-related because I couldn't do anything else. Enjoy?

000

_"When they meet again, something more terrifying and evil will awaken. Something long since sealed away will break free: leaving death and destruction in its wake. Will they be able to handle it again? Or is this the end of the road?"_

Special Phase: Celebrate Christmas (or something similar to that…)

"What? You don't know what Christmas is?" Daisuke stared at the vampire like he'd grown another set of fangs or another head or… well, something. That or he was just surprised that the blunette didn't know a thing about the huge, gigantic holiday-whatever-it-was and all that. Satoshi shrugged, slightly uncomfortable at the look the redhead was giving him.

"How would I know? Aside from being a vampire and shunned by the majority of the population, my family live in a secluded area and do squat aside from fighting among ourselves and drinking blood." He replied.

"Kyuu!" With bounced around the two aimlessly, trying to get rid of too much energy and hyperactivity.

The daemon tamer sighed in frustration, running a hand through his hair. It had been half an hour ago since Krad and Dark had gone to collect firewood and who-knew-what-else and he was beginning to worry if they'd been eaten by a bear or something similar to a bear-like figure.

This little not-knowing-how, on the other hand, also seemed to occupy a good part of his mind and he wasn't about to let it go. So he sat down next to the vampire, who was now watching in warily; like he was about to do something dangerous and insane. But the redhead just smiled at him and winked.

"What is it?" Satoshi began to edge slowly away, but the mortal grabbed him by the wrists to stay put in his sitting position.

"You have got to come the Christmas party at my place!" he decided there and then, "It'll be fun, Satoshi-kun! Krad and Dark can come as well, now that I think about it. And With needs to find a way to get rid of all that energy…" he waved a hand vaguely at his familiar, who 'kyu'-ed and bounced around in reply.

Scowling at this, the vampire shook the boy off, staring at the patch of cleared dirt in front of him, ready for the firewood. Where were Krad and Dark anyway? "I doubt I'd really want to be there. You do remember that almost your entire village wanted me dead the last time I was there."

"Not almost. All of them." Daisuke corrected him, smiling. He got a light hit on the head for that.

"Don't bother trying to correct me about people who wanted to put me on the stake, okay? How many people are going to be there, anyway?"

"Well, there's the festival for the entire town and I'm sure they welcome travelers and stuff. I doubt they'd recognize you anyway. Daichi, aunt and uncle and Hikaru will be there, yeah. Any other relatives I have live too far away to get here on time, and without the threat of monsters gnawing on their faces, you know? Oh, and Argentine-kun and his family, of course."

Satoshi sighed, "I was kind of hoping that, if I was forced to go, they wouldn't be around. They scared the shit out of me last time…"

"They're not that bad," the redhead shook his head, "you just have to get used to their odd… behavior."

"Not about to happen."

"Kyuu!" the daemon-bunny seemed to completely agree with the vampire and Daisuke pouted.

"See? They weren't making out after all; you owe me."

"Damn!"

Both boys turned to see Krad and Dark walking towards them, arguing and talking loudly, as per usual. It seemed to have become daily routine for them, despite being boyfriend and girlfriend and whatever, so yeah. The purple-haired 20 year old, of course, was carrying all the firewood; which wasn't much, actually, so it was all fine and dandy in the end.

"Were you making another bet?" Daisuke asked in disbelief, his face a perfect example of exasperation. "Can't you just drop it already, Dark?"

Dark scowled at the redhead, dumping the dry timber and stuff on the ground near them, "No, and I just hate the fact that despite everything, you STILL don't do anything! Even when you're alone and all that and still!"

"I never thought you'd actually be so enthusiastic about two guys making out," Krad commented, taking a seat opposite the other two, "I'm beginning to question your priorities and all. Besides, how far have _we_ gotten, hm?"

"… Whatever."

The blonde smirked knowingly, "He's just annoyed that I keep winning every bet he throws at me."

"Yeah, well," Daisuke frowned at the two of them for a moment before commencing on actually getting the fire built. Satoshi and Dark had gotten into a glaring contest while Krad dug through their packs for something edible. "It would be nice we had a little privacy once in a while. And why were you two taking so long? How hard can it be to find firewood?"

She shrugged nonchalantly, "We found it fine before we were attacked by a giant something or other. Then Dark made his bets and we decided to give you two some time alone to see what would happen. But I am beginning to wonder why you two are so slow…" Krad smirked teasingly at the younger boy, whose face flushed just slightly.

"We just want to go slowly, okay?" he spluttered, and Krad leaned forward to poke him on the nose.

"Right… as far as I know, you two have only shared one kiss, right?"

"So?"

"So if either one of you had Dark's personality, you'd be insane, right?" she pulled back, "Anyway, why are we going back to your aunt's village and stuff? I don't see the point unless you want them to kill your boyfriend over there."

"They probably won't recognize him unless he goes on a blood lust spree," Daisuke shrugged; that was the least of his worries at the moment.

"Yeah, well, seeing as you're the only one he takes blood from, he might want a change, won't he?"

"Nah…" actually, that was something bordering on his mind as well, "Wait, you don't know why we're going back? Do you know what date it is today?"

Krad blinked, "No."

"How about if I told you it was December?"

"What's so special about it?"

Daisuke hung his head; it looked like he'd also have to explain the occasion to the others, otherwise there'd be no point. With seemed equally surprised, but it wasn't as defined; being a rabbit and all.

The silence was broken as Dark lost the glaring contest and cursed at the night sky.

000

"Hey, Daisuke…"

"Hm? What is it?"

Satoshi glanced down at the boy snuggled next to him. Due to dangers of monsters attacking them and the fact that Krad needed a tent for herself (duh, she was the only female), they obviously posted guards, and as no one could ever sleep with Dark around (who snored; loudly), the two younger boys tended to share watch duty together.

"I was wondering… why is this day so important to you, anyway?" he knew it sounded kind of rude, but also knew that the redhead would probably take it as ignorance, "I mean…"

"It was something I always celebrated with my parents when I was young," Daisuke shrugged slightly, "I can't remember all the details, but my mother used to tell me about the giant star and angels and stuff. I guess the tradition just stuck to me, and now it's just… well, a time to have fun and co-exist and stuff with the others. A time for giving and receiving. It's a fun time to be around the people you care for."

Well, that definitely explained a lot. Seeing as his parents had died at a young age… "Sorry."

The tamer laughed softly, "For what?"

"… Nothing. Get some sleep already."

"Fine." Daisuke closed his eyes, getting as close to Satoshi as possible, "'Night." It didn't take long for the boy's breathing to even out as he drifted off into the realms of sleep and the vampire unconsciously began to stroke his hair.

It was so obvious that Daisuke wanted him (and the others) to attend to this celebration; so how the hell was he going to deny fate? How the hell could he refuse such a simple request?

Simple for the redhead, that is; not the vampire.

000

Pulling the flaps back to her personal tent (which, in truth, was no different from any other tent), Krad hit her boyfriend/whatever their relationship was, where he had been crouching for the past half-hour. "What the hell are you doing loitering out there?"

Dark shot her an indignant-hurt look, "What, can't I even visit you anymore? I miss you."

"Idiot, we've been traveling together for eight months now and see each other everyday; give it up. And no, you're not allowed in here," she hit him over the head again for emphasis, "What's with you and hanging outside my tent every night anyway?"

He frowned lightly at this, mock-thinking (because, as they all knew, he rarely thought about anything as "his head would explode" (quote Satoshi)), "Because I love you?"

"Nice, but I don't honestly care," another hit, this time harder, "Leave and get some sleep before you do watch and fall asleep halfway through it." That had happened 20 times, by her count.

"Fine, fine," grumbled Dark, looking put-out, "By the way, did you hear what the other two were talking about before?"

"Which part of it?"

"… All?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I dunno. I thought that if anyone could find a reason for listening in, it'd be you. Ah well, whatever," he leaned forward to give her a kiss on the nose, "Goodnight then."

"Bastard," Krad shot back, but was smiling as she allowed the tent flap to fall back into place.

000

After three days of (rather quiet) traveling, they caught sight of the small town that had been (and still was, in a way) Daisuke's home. Well, he had been living there for eight or so years. What caught them all by surprise was the fact that a familiar someone with fiery red hair came up to greet them. Or tackle Daisuke, anyway.

"Oh god, save me already!" was the first thing that escaped her mouth, "Aunt and Uncle have gone nuts on me again!"

"Daichi…" he managed to pry her off slightly to get a good look at her, "Did you get bad grades in your school report again?"

His twin shrugged at this, recovering some sense of dignity, "I did perfectly fine. Average, yes, but still fine. I don't see why they should be complaining."

"Uh-huh… so how did you know I was going to be here?"

She shrugged, brushing her hair back, "I didn't. I was just looking for a place to hide for a bit and no one else I know had naturally red hair anyway, so it was plain assumption. And why is it that you only come now and THEY are still with you?"

Her focus on the word 'they' was entirely related to Satoshi, who just raised an eyebrow at her in reply. Daisuke stood up and shook his head.

"They're my friends; why else would I be traveling with them?"

"Hmph, doesn't mean that I have to like it. Oh well, come on then. Aunt and uncle should be happy to see you again. They still have to deal with me and Hikaru all the time."

"Kyuu!"

"With! You're still alive as well!"

"Kyuu--"

Daisuke shook his head just slightly, "And you probably haven't improved with the summoning, have you?"

A shrug, "I had to give up before I completely decimated the town. What more can I say?"

"Obviously not a lot."

"Shut up, Dai-chan."

"Kyuu!"

"You too, With."

Krad smirked at this as they made their way back to where the village/town was located. Dark was preoccupied with looking around him for some reason, Satoshi was probably scowling at the girl's back, and Daisuke had fallen into an argument with his twin. It was all good, rather pointless, and a hell of a lot of fun.

"Hey! Daisuke's back!" Daichi called, slamming the door to their house open. There was a curse down where the kitchen was located and a smashing noise. The redheaded girl winced, "Sounds like Hikaru's pottery classes aren't working all that well."

"Damn you, Daichi!" shrieked the brunette as she stormed down the hallway, but calmed down when she noticed the guests, "Come in. Oh yeah, Daisuke, you've got a ton of mail from people. So… you might want to plough through that."

This actually being the first time for Krad and Dark coming to Daisuke's house, decided to have a look around while the redhead tramped upstairs to check the mail with Satoshi following behind him and With bounced out to the garden which seemed to be his haven for peace… and food. Daichi was forced into the kitchen to help her cousin with the mess in there now, and they were informed that the adults were out to help arrange the festivities and would be back later. That and the fact that the actual event was only in two days.

Looking around the lounge room, and getting the sense that the person next to her was plotting something evil, Krad poked Dark in the back, frowning; "What are you planning this time, hm?"

"Whatever are you talking about?" he shot back, trying to smile innocently.

"I'm not stupid. What are you going to sabotage this time?" she snapped back, giving him another poke for being the jerk he was and always would be.

Dark stepped out of poking range and then held up something. It looked like a plant… thingy… ur… "What?"

"It's mistletoe," he claimed.

"… What?" clearly, Krad had no interest with backyards, plants, or anything vaguely related to them.

"Well, I heard from Risa ages ago about how when you catch someone under the mistletoe, you have to kiss them. Are you following me?"

"Yeah, but… wait, why would she be talking about that… three months ago? That doesn't make any sense."

"I know, but she was always a bit odd in my opinion."

"Good for you."

"Hey, don't be sarcastic."

"So what are you planning with that… thing?" the blonde crossed her arms and gave her boyfriend a long look, waiting for him to explain what the hell was going on.

He grinned at this, "We'll catch the other two under it, that's what!"

"Uhm… have you ever considered the fact that they're both guys? What do you think the rest of them are going to think when they see it?"

"Well, if that's a problem, we'll just catch them in a secluded place, okay? Seriously, they're so slow in this relationship business…"

"Right; you do know that Satoshi will end up killing you if he finds out that you're behind all this."

Dark leaned forward to kiss Krad lightly, "Then we're just going to have to make sure that he doesn't find out, right? Come on, Krad, you're the one with the intelligence."

She could only shake her head, "I can't believe I'm letting you go ahead with this now…"

000

"Wow…" Daisuke blinked, staring at his bed and desk, "I knew she said a lot of mail and to plough through it but…" he bowed his head in frustration, "I bet most of them are just telemarketers or something."

"Or your friends. Although why they would send you mail if you all live in the same village, I will never know," Satoshi commented. As it was, the room that was one the twins but now Daisuke's was practically submerged in letters, all shapes, sizes and colours. It was going to be a long time before they could even dig out the bed.

Picking up a letter at random, Daisuke stared at it, "Maybe I should just throw this all in the compost… it's not going to be much help, seeing as I'll be leaving after all this anyway…"

The vampire continued to look around himself, before sighing, "Well, let's just get this over and done with, okay?"

"Eh? But…" the redhead seemed appalled at the idea, "You're a guest here! Uhm… take a seat?" there really wasn't one they could see and he shrugged, "I can deal with this fine, so…"

Satoshi smirked at this as he wrapped his arms around the tamer's waist, "You don't really expect me to stand or sit around, right? And there's now way I'm going to hang around the other two, and your sister doesn't like me; I'm happy where I am."

"Uhm… okay…" that still wasn't the best way to explain what they had to do next, "I don't have an overdue library book! What are they talking about?"

"Ever heard of that title before?"

"… DAICHI!"

A faint yell in reply; "What?"

"Did you take out a book in my name?.!"

"What? Oh, shit, so I did!"

"Daichi! Don't use language like that!" reprimanded Hikaru's voice.

"Damn you!"

"Where is it?" Daisuke called.

"Don't know! I'll find it later!" Another smash, "Screw this!"

"Daichi!"

The vampire glanced over to the redhead, "Are they always… that loud?" He was beginning to get a headache, despite the fact that they had had to live through Dark and Krad's own rather pointless arguments that tended to be a lot louder and violent than what they were witnessing.

Smiling in embarrassment, Daisuke closed the door, muffling the yelling, "Sorry about that. They always seem to be full of energy that they put into fighting, so… yeah."

They had been cleaning around for a good few minutes, and managed to unearth the bed, the desk, and light was finally able to filter through the window, before they decided to take a break. Satoshi sat on the chair, staring blankly out the window without much though, while Daisuke occupied the bed, apparently very interested at the ceiling. Yes, it was indeed beyond interesting and he was having the time of his life.

The sound of both girls arguing, later accompanied by Dark's and Krad's, soon proved that they were all getting along pretty well, as the redhead took loud conversation as good conversation. When he had first put out that theory, the blonde had believed him mad.

"We're home!" came a muffled call from downstairs. The arguing stopped immediately and Daisuke bounced off his bed.

"That'll be Aunt Aya," he muttered, seemingly to himself, before waving a hand at the vampire, "Come on, Satoshi-kun!"

"Right… but I don't like the sound of this."

"Don't worry," laughing at the hesitation he was receiving, Daisuke grabbed Satoshi's wrists and dragged him unwillingly out of the room.

000

Silence fell on the town, as the final preparations were dealt within houses and in meeting rooms. Both Daisuke's aunt and uncle nearly squeezed him to death upon seeing him, and welcomed his friends to stay the night (not knowing the fact that Satoshi was a vampire; and the very one they tried to rid of nearly four years back). So Krad shared with Daichi and Hikaru (who argued long into the night), while Satoshi and Dark took Daisuke's room to share. Right after Krad incinerated all the mail in there, anyway.

Dark was snoring loudly, as per usual, and Satoshi was out to prey for some damn stupid animal that would wander across his path unawares. Well, he still had to find a way to sustain himself, didn't he? Daisuke drifted off, wondering how big they were planning the festival would be.

And yes, the purple-haired 20-year-old was actually plotting in between snores, so one had to wonder what was going on.

000

The night of the festival/celebration/whatever made the town look like the place had exploded with greens and reds and yellow. Whether that be crepe paper, foil, cellophane or concrete. There was definitely a lot of noise, and somehow Daisuke and Satoshi ended up separated from Dark and Krad; although that really honestly come as a shock, but no one gave much of a damn.

As the redhead had explained to the vampire the night before, Argentine and his family did have to work for a living, and their own little performance that involved summoning things and doing hat tricks seemed to amuse everyone immensely.

Yet the thing that seemed to amaze Satoshi (as his lack of emotional reactions made it hard to decide anything at all) was of the giant Christmas tree that had been decorated and surrounded by what looked like pixies… kinda freaky, actually. That was definitely not a good sign at all.

And, of course, loud noises was something the vampire was no accustomed to and soon had to be led back home by a worried Daisuke.

000

"Are you sure they're going to go up here at all?"

"Well, it's either that or staying in a living room full of tinsel and sickening pink stuffed animals everywhere."

"You told me to get those."

"Yes I did. Now shut up, I think they're coming. I knew Satoshi couldn't stand the crowds for long."

"Hey, after this, can we take a look around. It sounds fun."

"Yeah, yeah…"

000

Tramping up the stairs, Daisuke was indeed put-off by the amount of pink and tinsel explosion in the living room. Whatever Daichi had been thinking, it hadn't been good. And there she was, telling them that she was fine; really! Physically, maybe, but mentally… urm… he decided not to think too much about it in case she decided to try her hand at summoning again.

"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked Satoshi, who just blinked at him.

"I could have gotten here on my own. You didn't have to leave the festivities because of me," he finally replied, turning away and messing with the collar of his shirt.

"And what happens if you collapse or something?" Daisuke shook his head as he pushed the door to his room open, "And I don't know what Daichi was thinking with all that pink and stuff downstairs… sorry about that…"

"Never mind…" something swinging on the top door post caught Satoshi's attention, "What's that?"

"Huh? What?" perplexed, the tamer looked up and his face immediately flushed, "It's nothing." He made a swipe at the mistletoe above him and it swung merrily, almost like it was taunting them.

"Really? Then what's with the face?"

"He's just embarrassed."

Both boys started as Dark and Krad switched the lights on in the room. Dark was smirking widely and Krad was looking out the window, like it was the most interesting thing in the world.

"Wait… you did this?" Daisuke demanded, pointing an accusing finger at Dark, who shrugged.

"It's not a bad thing, anyway. Besides, you've done it once before, right?"

"Yeah, but…"

"Too bad! You two've gotta kiss! I already did it with Krad so…"

She hit him over the head to shut him up, "To put it simply, when you pass over that… plant… thingy, you have to share a kiss. Nothing more, nothing less."

"Damn, they should have one where they make out…" muttered Dark.

"I'd rather not think about that," she shot back, hitting him again.

Daisuke was blushing furiously by this point (although it might have been something about kissing in front of someone) but Satoshi's rather blank look had been changed to something more… er… smug.

"Well, if that's all…" he began calmly.

000

"Hey, do you know where Daisuke is?" asked Daichi. Argentine shook his head, while his sister Aine was more vocal in replying.

"He had to take Satoshi home because he didn't seem to be doing too well," she explained, juggling the knives in her hands deftly, "Not that I really expected much else from him."

"Urgh… and I finally found something to give him as a present," the redhead muttered, turning away, "Well, if you see him, tell him I'm looking for him then."

"Right. Merry Christmas to you, then."

"Same."

000

Daisuke pointed, "See that really bright star out there?"

Satoshi nodded silently. It wasn't hard to locate it anyway.

Having finally kicked Dark and Krad out of the house, the two boys were finally given some piece. Sitting in Daisuke's room, the silence was actually quite peaceful.

"Well, they say that when He was born, it appeared."

"Hm… I'd say you're making it up, but it doesn't really matter, does it?" the vampire leaned forward for a kiss. "Merry Christmas."

"Yeah…"

Of course, the vampire still honestly had no idea that reasoning behind it all. Oh well, maybe he'd ask Daisuke to explain it to him in detail one day. But for now…

000

Krad crossed her arms as Dark stared at the thick, bulking book in his arms. "Read away, my dear Dark."

"Aw… but there's too much…"

"Whatever…"

"Kyuuuu!"

"Yes, and a Merry thingy-ma-bob to you, too."

"Dark, stop avoiding the subject."

000

Yes… I know, it's random. Merry Christmas everyone and thanks for your comments! (hands out gingerbread men and other Christmas-related things)

ginny brenn: It's all part of the really, really confusing plot XD You noticed that, too? Yeah, I'll be explaining that for the next chapter (looks around)… hope you'll hang around! Yay! Cookies! (goes hyperactive)

Mria: Aw… thanks XD Dark's just been like that his whole life (maybe I should explain that in the later chapters?) but don't worry, there will be fluffy moments between Dark had Krad (as long as I don't chicken out lol) And thank you so much for the review-!


	10. Phase Eight: Must be a family thing

Disclaimers: Does not own the characters, but the concept may be mine… if no one has taken it already.

Warnings: Vagueness, randomness (as always) and just the fact that I can't do anything remotely romantic.

Other: Pshaw… I can't believe I typed this. It's very… random… and we meet the rest of Argentine's family! (and for some reason, their last name is Delvin XD)

000

_"When they meet again, something more terrifying and evil will awaken. Something long since sealed away will break free: leaving death and destruction in its wake. Will they be able to handle it again? Or is this the end of the road?"_

Phase Eight: Must be a family thing

The garden was, needless to say, huge. Like, way beyond huge. The sort of scary super-big-gigantic-impossibly-possible huge. Or this was just making no sense, as per usual. Not that anyone really cared enough to correct them or anything in the end.

Krad stared at the bush in front of her which seemed to have white flowers growing out to them. "Hey, what the hell do you think this is?"

With, who was sitting on top of her head, blinked, "Kyuu?"

"I thought you would know these sorts of things, being the princess and all," Dark replied, looking down at the bush, as if waiting for it to do something completely and utterly amazing. Maybe it would come to life and eat them all? Well, in this world, anything was pretty much possible.

She shot him a frown, "I think by now you would know that I rarely did anything in my 'role' when I could avoid it. Otherwise I'd have to massacre the entire kingdom."

"Now that sounds painful."

"Doesn't it?"

Casting his long-time-childhood-friend, Dark sat himself down on the grass. Like he had thought previously, the place was colossal. Aside from the paved pathway and the large, marble-looking fountain in the center of it and what he suspected was a garden maze, all the flowers and the variety of flowers present scared the shit out of him. And he wasn't just thinking that alone.

Even the gardens back at the palace hadn't been so… exquisite. Krad had to admire anyone who would waste so much time keeping this place in check, and wondered if the family had a hired gardener or something. Or an insane member of the kin that took care of it; either way.

"Hey, Krad…" this was Dark, obviously.

"What?" she shot back, not turning to face him and just continued to stare at the bush as if it fascinated her; well… they _were _white, weren't they? There was something about that colour that intrigued her and made her nauseous at the same time. Actually, that might have been due to the comment that that crazy shop assistant had said back some chapters…

She shook her head, getting rid of the thought and waited for Dark to continue.

"… Why do people bother to have gardens in the first place, anyway?"

"And you're asking ME this?" she shot back.

"Well, you have a point there."

They fell silent again, lost in their own thoughts and who knows what, although Krad did eventually have to take a seat because standing there and looking at flowers weren't all that interesting.

Dark flopped back as the blonde watched With bounce off, probably in search of food, or something. "Oh yeah, I was meaning to ask…"

"Again? What is it this time?"

"Why are we out here in the first place?"

She raised an eyebrow at him, wondering if he was just asking for the sake of it, or merely being the idiot she knew him as, "I just thought a little fresh air would help clear my mind a bit." She replied sarcastically.

"Oh… okay."

And he believed that.

Krad shook her head, pitying the stupidity that wrought Dark's mind. "Look, Satoshi and Daisuke want some time alone to talk about what just happened, right?" she waited until the purple-haired person next to her nodded in understanding, "And the last thing they need is people like you getting in the way and being annoying, right?"

"Yeah, but-" Dark began as he frowned at being called annoying.

"Trust me. If you don't want vampire to attack you, it'd be better to just let them have some quality time alone." Krad, satisfied that she'd explained in the simplest way possible, leaned forward and closed her eyes. Geeze, for one morning, it was already beginning to tire her out. Way too hectic for its own good and, well… she couldn't place why it had to be that way.

Always, no matter what she wanted to do or whatever, something always had to get in the way and it was beginning to but her senseless. Maybe if she just killed everyone, it would work out, but… she highly doubted it possible.

Dark had fallen silent, and the blonde wondered if he was sleeping or, god forbid, thinking. It didn't seem possible for him to actually think about anything, being the impulsive, insanely reckless person who couldn't even defend himself correctly, so she chose the idea of him sleeping because there seriously wasn't anything to do.

A sudden force on her shoulder made Krad turn around, to meet Dark's gaze, "What?" she asked blankly.

"Well, seeing as we're allowing them to have time alone," he began, shrugging slightly, "Why don't we do something? 'Kay?"

The blonde blinked for a moment, having absolutely no idea on where this was going, "Something as in… what?"

Dark winked, "You'll see."

Of course, in an instant, Krad really didn't trust him.

Then again, if anything ended up reckless and/or stupidly insane she could just brain him if she wanted to.

000

Rubbing his eyes in a dazed notion, Daisuke stared blankly at the ceiling, which was, like everything else, decorated in one way or another. But this time… it was kind of… nostalgic. He frowned vaguely at this, trying to work out where and why the feeling was there, and then concluded that it had something to do with his old home back in this very town. More pondering… and then it came to him.

His own family had had these sort of designs in the former nursery when he and Daichi had still been no more than two. The patterns had not been childish, to say the least, and incredibly captivating.

Wait… why was he remembering this for?

He closed his eyes with a sigh, but they snapped right back open when he felt something cool touch his forehead lightly. Turning his head, he instantly recognized who it was.

"Hiwatari-kun?"

The vampire nodded slightly, having taken a seat by the bed, "Are you okay?"

Blinking for a moment, Daisuke sat up slightly, "Yeah… I think so. Just a little dizzy, that's all." As his vision cleared, it was easier for the redhead to get a grip on his surroundings. Guessing by the decorations as such, he was in one of the many guestrooms. "How long was I out?"

"About an hour."

"Oh… well… uhm…" Daisuke was at a complete loss as to what he was supposed to say now. Besides the fact that he did feel completely fine – aside from loss of blood – it didn't seem right to start asking about… vampire's eating habits. Or should that have been drinking?

"Sorry about that."

"Eh? What?" the redhead turned quickly to stare at Satoshi, who was now staring at the ground. At least, that was what he assumed.

The blunette shrugged slightly, "I didn't know I was going to suddenly collapse like that," he expanded, "I usually get along fine without human blood, but I suppose my body was never meant to adapt to that…" he brought his hands up slightly and only noticed then that they were shaking lightly. "I didn't mean to hurt you…" Satoshi stopped when he noticed that Daisuke had placed his own hands over them.

"Hey, I'm fine, aren't I?" always the optimist, the daemon tamer smiled brightly at him. "Besides, I've recovered, haven't I? What's the problem? If you needed blood so badly, you could have told us. I'm fine with it."

"… Really?" well, that was a shock and a half. Knowing humans and their prejudice against anything other than humans and fluffy, harmless animals, the last thing he'd expected was to Daisuke not to freak out. Then he remembered that this was Daisuke that he was talking/thinking about, so maybe it shouldn't have come so much as a shock.

"Yeah."

If he'd been a mortal, it would have been correct to say that blood was pounding in his ears at this point, but Satoshi, being the vampire he was, really didn't have blood in him at all, but the sensation was probably quite similar. Before either one knew exactly what was happening, the blunette leaned forward to kiss Daisuke.

Ruby eyes widened in shock for a split second before they closed and the redhead returned the kiss willingly; but, of course, interruptions seemed to be the main course of where they were and the door behind them burst open.

Aine gave a yelp of pain as she hit the floor hard with a thud. Groaning, she rubbed the bottom of her chin and grimaced, "I hate this place sometimes…"

Satoshi raised an eyebrow, "What were you doing?"

"Aine-chan," Daisuke, recollecting his thoughts, smiled brightly from his position on the bed, "were you trying to listen in again?"

This made the vampire turn around, "Again?"

"Oh, she just has this thing with eavesdropping on people who come here… even her own family… it's kind of funny because most of the doors are pretty unstable and… well… you just saw."

"Right…"

"Hey, hey, Dai-chan's recovered," without any semblance of a warning, the sandy-blonde-haired girl had picked herself up and glomped the redhead; after running the short distance between the door and the bed, of course. At this point, Satoshi was wondering how sane she really was, and Daisuke… well, he seemed to be used to this sort of treatment.

"So, then," she grinned before her eyes shifted on the two of them, "what were you two doing then, eh? You guys seem quite familiar with each other… so I was wondering… you know…"

Daisuke blinked, "Wondering… what… exactly?" Sometimes it was hard, even for his family, to work out where her mind was going.

"Doing it! You know!" she seemed agitated that neither boy was catching her drift.

"…" the vampire looked over, hoping for an explanation from Daisuke, but the redhead looked just as baffled. Interpreting With was easier than this, that was for sure.

He thought for a moment, "Doing it… like… work? Planning? Talking about his heritage?"

She shook her head firmly, "Geez, you're still so clueless. Well, never mind then, I'll just have to explain it to you and…" something heavy hit the back of her head and she jolted forward into Daisuke, "Fuc… I mean, hey, that hurt! Argie--!"

Aine pouted as she turned to look at her brother, who shook his head by the doorway. The book she'd been carrying with her earlier that day (and dropped it when she glomped Daisuke) was now lying on the carpeted floor innocently.

"You have to stop confusing people like that and, honestly, they're only seventeen, as far as I know." He snapped, annoyed.

"Say what?" the redhead looked over questioning, but got a shake of the head in reply.

"Don't give Daisuke more bad influences on your part, Aine, please," a long-haired blonde entered, frowning lightly. "You did a rather thorough job on Daichi when they were here already."

"Alethea-san!" the redhead beamed suddenly – albeit scarily – and attempted to get out of bed, nearly tripped, and it was only because Satoshi was there that he didn't end up breaking his nose. Wrapping his arms around the vampire's neck, Daisuke inclined his head, not caring about the position he was now in. "Uh… shouldn't you be at work?"

Smiling calmly, she walked over, pushed Aine on the shoulder to make her sit down, and then took a seat herself on the bed. "Ne, ne? Daisuke, you've really grown, haven't you? And matured a lot." She held her hand up a certain height from the floor, "I remember when you were that tall, remember?"

"Mou… I wasn't THAT short…"

More or less unnoticed, Satoshi watched as the conversation went between the two, which soon became banter with Aine and Argentine involved (if not unwillingly) and he pondered the situation at the moment. The vampire couldn't help but notice that Alethea seemed to have a motherly-air to her, especially that little fact about Daisuke being short… like, very short…

Now that he thought about it, Daisuke had grown quite a bit over the last three years, although he'd never say it out loud himself; leave that to Dark or something.

"So… Satoshi, is it?" he snapped out of his musing and met Alethea's eyes.

"Yeah?"

"You're a full-blooded, true vampire then, eh?"

"That's right."

"Well, then… I suppose that's fine. Take good care of Daisuke, okay?"

"Yeah! Or we'll get you," Aine added helpfully.

"Oi…" Daisuke began, but no one was really paying him much attention.

"Okay…" agreed Satoshi, although he wondered why they were telling him this. It sounded just a bit too… well, okay, so they were traveling together and all, but there seemed to be another meaning behind their words. Not to mention Argentine was now muttering under his breath and scowling. The only word the blunette made out was "unnatural"…

It seemed that they knew more about the situation between them then even they knew. And that was slightly worrying.

Not that he could do anything about it.

"Oh yeah; where're Dark and Krad?" Daisuke had leaned forward to tug lightly at Aine's hair. She turned to face him, blinked, and then turned to the other two in the room.

"Sis? Bro?"

"No idea," Argentine said while Alethea shrugged. He was about to say more, but another blonde entered the room. He nodded to Daisuke, ignored Satoshi, and then turned to the other three.

"It looks like the alarm's gone off in that room," he said lightly. The other three blondes jerked up in an instant at this.

"You two stay here," commanded Alethea, "We'll take care of this."

Daisuke opened his mouth to protest, but Aine clapped a hand over it and shoved him back onto the bed before leaving herself. Argentine was the last to leave and he inclined his head at the redhead, who stared back questioningly.

"Let's just say those lunatics that are after your companions seemed to have honed in on them so…" he sighed before leaving the room.

"Well… that was… odd," Satoshi commented, not allowing the silence to stretch out.

"Hm, actually, this is more passive compared to what I remembered," the redhead commented, before expanding due to the vampire's blank look, "Argentine, Aine, Alethea and Armel Delvin are quadruplets."

"That would explain why they're so alike."

"Yeah, anyway, their parents were rarely at home when I was still living around here, so they've been more or less living on their own, supporting one another."

"And their attitudes…?"

"Always like that," Daisuke grinned, "it's just a family thing of theirs. I wouldn't worry about it, Hiwatari-kun."

"I see." The blunette thought for a moment, before shrugging it off, "I'd rather not ask what Aine was talking about before…"

"Don't worry. She's always been one to make random comments."

"… but in terms about us…"

"Hm?"

000

"Hell!" Dark yelped as he leapt to one side to avoid being sliced in half with the blade that Krad was currently wielding. "Do you have to be that violent! Are you trying to kill me or something!"

The blonde thought about it for a moment, and then grinned, "Well, it wouldn't be such a bad idea, now, would it? Besides, you're the one who asked for training! I'm a mercenary by trade! So pipe down and fight back!"

She came at him with an overhead cut and the purple-haired adolescent gave another yelp as he tried to dodge it. Krad fumed, "Stop dodging it and fight back, moron!"

"But you're gonna kill me!"

"Tough luck! At least defend!"

As she swung at him again, Dark did as he was told and there was the distinct sound to metal clashing as he defended with his knives. Both were more or less locked in place and Krad blinked.

"Well, what do you know," she muttered, "you actually know how to defend. I'm shocked."

"And I'm insulted," was the retort, "why do you always have to belittle me like that?.!"

"Because you're a complete moron!"

Dark rolled his eyes at this, still straining to make sure that the blade Krad was still holding onto didn't slice him into pieces, which, at this point, was probably what the blonde was thinking at the moment. So he did the only smart thing he could think of to distract her; he kissed her.

Of course, this did shock Krad, but at the same time it meant he got a fist in his face and he was knocked back. "Dammit, Krad! You're too violent!"

"And you're a damn freaking idiot!" she snapped, glaring at him, "If you were caught in that same situation with an enemy, would you seriously do that?"

"Well… if it distracted them long enough…"

"Damnit!" Krad shook her head, re-sheathing her blade, "You can be so thick sometimes!"

"What's that supposed to mean?.!"

"Whatever you're damn thick skull wants to interpret it as!"

Spinning on her heel, the blonde stomped her way back to the house, with Dark scrambling after her with With, who had come back sometime when they hadn't been paying much attention. The last thing she expected then was for the door to suddenly slam open when she'd been about to open it herself, and it sent her reeling back rather forcefully. Slamming into the guy behind her, it was only by chance that they didn't collapse in a heap.

"Bloody hell…" Krad muttered, clearly beginning to snap under the pressure.

"Oh, sorry about that," Aine smiled slightly in embarrassment, "maybe I shouldn't be so enthusiastic in the future…"

"Not going to happen, with you anyway," Argentine commented.

"Wow, you guys have doubled," Dark said, as he noticed the other two behind them, "now I'm officially freaked."

"We'll talk later," Aine shrugged at her brother and sister, before shoving them back towards the door, "go back to where Daisuke and Satoshi are, 'kay? We'll deal with this."

Krad turned her head slightly as she managed to regain her balance, "Deal with what?" but she was talking to the door as it slammed shut. "Oh great. Let's just go then."

"What's going on?" Dark asked.

"Kyuu!"

There was a sudden, rattling explosion.

"Well," sighed the blonde, turning the knob to where the other two were, "we'll probably find out sooner than later."

000

"Scout report!"

"So?"

"We've found them! It wasn't hard, seeing as their not exactly mortal, now are they?"

"Good job. We'll leave a message for the others."

"We're going before them?"

"Of course, moron! They might move off if we wait."

"Oh… okay…"

"Move out!"

000

(cue suspense music) Caught out! Although they don't know it. And quadruplets? Why that? Because we already had enough twins XD Risa and Riku and Daisuke and Daichi… why more? So yeah, Argentine has two sisters and a brother now and they all look alike XP

Kissing! Stuff! I can't do anything beyond that, so… yeah. And what do you know, Daisuke and Satoshi kissed before Dark and Krad, although Krad half killed him for it… XD

(has no idea what's going to happen next)


	11. Phase Nine: Things Can Happen

Disclaimers: If I were to own it, I'd probably decide it'd be fun to mess up their lives and make Krad cross dress at least once in his long lifetime (gets stabbed)

Warnings: Confusing, pointless, badly written (well, that's what I think) and Krad talks to With… like a person… for some reason…

Other: Bleah… is there anything I can say? It's a confusing piece of writing and, well, you don't really hear much about the fighting. Oh well, whatever.

000

_"When they meet again, something more terrifying and evil will awaken. Something long since sealed away will break free: leaving death and destruction in its wake. Will they be able to handle it again? Or is this the end of the road?"_

Phase Nine: Things Can Happen (without ones' notice on it)

"You seem to be pretty… knowing about everything at the moment," Krad commented, raising an eyebrow, "Do you have any idea on what's going on at the moment?"

Both Satoshi and Daisuke exchanged bewildered glances at this, wondering why in the name of hell was the blonde talking to With now? Well, as the demon-rabbit-bunny-like-creature seemed to be going all hyperactive and incredibly worried, they might have thought as much.

Dark, being as bored as he was and hating the idea of being cooped in a room that was, well it wasn't small, but being stuck anywhere was enough to get on his nerves and he was being very loud about it. It seemed to be part of his character/personality… it was amazing that no one had honestly tried to kill him before now.

And no, they were not about to try now. Maybe… sometime in the near future would do.

Daisuke, having completely recovered, paced the room to get rid of some of his excess nervous energy. That and he was thinking over the little conversation he had just had with Satoshi before both Dark and Krad had burst into the room; without knocking again, it would seem.

"Kyuu! Kyu kyu kyu kyu kyu!" was all the rabbit could say and continuously bounced up and down on the bed, waving his arms (well, paws) wildly, as if it was enough to tell them exactly what he wanted to say. But, as it was, they had no clue, and Krad demanding knowing what was going on wasn't helping matters.

Add that with Dark's complaining and there was just a whole lot of chaos and the readiness of painful headaches and pain. A lot of it, one might have to add before it got too far.

Satoshi was the one suffering the most, it would seem.

Trying to block out one person talking was one thing, and sure, he could do that fine without any problem, but having two people talking and one demon making a hell of a lot of noise, it was just painful.

"You okay?" the redhead asked, noticing the vampire's discomfort. The blunette shrugged slightly at this, trying hard not to crack under the annoying pressure he knew he'd have to live with while he was traveling with them.

"It could be worse, I suppose," he muttered in reply, "I could be back home, having to hear everyone in the family lecturing me about not being a proper vampire and all."

"Oi, Daisuke," Krad snapped, turning to face the two, "do you have any idea what your familiar is trying to say? Or it this just another plead for food or attention or something?"

Scratching the back of his head, he daemon tamer walked over to With and caught the creature in mid-jump. Holding him up to eye-level, Daisuke blinked, "Well, With?"

"Kyuu… kyuu kyuuuuu kyu," With inclined his head and blinked back, flapping his ears around.

"… I really have to get myself a familiar that can communicate without just one word," the redhead decided out loud, before turning back to the others; Dark had finally been gagged by Krad, who had threatened to kill him if he kept complaining, was now sulking by the corner. "It seems that there's been some sort of unbalance or something. And seeing as this is With we're talking about, it has to do something about a… gate?"

"The Gate?" Krad looked over to Dark, who shrugged.

"Well, it has to be something big," Daisuke fell silent, thinking about it for a moment, "and whatever it is, it's coming this way. I wonder how the other monsters are handling it out there…"

The blonde suddenly snorted, cutting him short. "Krad?"

"Great, I knew that this was going to happen," she ranted, "But I was hoping against everything else that they would be stupid enough and too out of whack to work out what's actually going on."

Dark pulled his gag off, finally getting what she was saying, "You mean… they've already found us out?.!"

"Seems so."

"Damn."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. But the question remains… what are we supposed to do?" she looked around to the other three, waiting for suggestions, it seemed.

Satoshi shook his head, "It's still going to be hours before it becomes night and I doubt we'll be able to stay hidden until then. I'm assuming that's what the others are trying to do?"

"Of course," nodded Daisuke, "But even if they are all specialized Daemon tamers and all, I don't think even they'll be able to control any sort of large force, especially seeing as they aren't really… human."

Frowning at this, Krad muttered something under her breath, "That could be a real problem…" she raised her voice, "The question is how capable are summoned daemons against magical forces?"

"We'll probably find out sooner or later," Dark looked around the room, as the window had already been closed and curtains drawn inwards, "of course I've noticed that sooner seems to be before later these days… Until then, why don't we see if there's any other way out of here. I have no intention of standing around like a sitting duck."

"Or chicken."

He turned to face the blonde who had just said that, "What?"

"Oh… nothing," she shrugged nonchalantly.

"Right…"

000

Running a hand through her hair, Aine gnawed the edges of her sleeve, frowning slightly as they stood around the large fountain that was still spouting water like it was supposed to do.

"So are you totally sure that we'll be able to keep them away? I mean, come on, by the sounds of it, it's an incredibly large force coming after us."

"We can summon more than they can call, remember?" Armel commented lightly, swinging the rapier he had picked up during their run down to the garden. He seemed annoyed with the setback and seemed to want to get back to his work soon. Aine elbowed him cheerfully.

"Aw… come on, what can be better than fighting back armed forces of scary, scary people that I don't know what they actually are," a sigh, "we all know you love killing dangerous and reckless monsters for a living, but this is important. Daisuke's counting on us." She gave him a shove.

Alethea shushed them, "I'm trying to concentrate. Give me a moment."

"Hey hey hey, why are we all standing around this fountain, anyway?" demanded Aine, who was clearly beginning to get impatient with all the standing and the doing nothing and so forth. "Shouldn't we be doing something more… useful? Like, you know…"

"You don't know what you're talking about, do you?" Armel raised an eyebrow as he continued to swing his weapon, "Well, whatever. I'll be over at the front in case they decide to come that way."

As he left, the short haired girl continued to bounce on the balls of her feet impatiently and completely and utterly annoying her sister and remaining brother in the process. "Come on, come on, come on…"

"Shut up, Aine," grated Argentine between clenched teeth; he looked ready to strangle the girl. "If you don't pipe down now…"

"Summon something to shut me up again and I'll send something after you, Argie."

"…" Argentine's eye twitched just slightly – a sure sign of fragmenting patience – and spun on his heel, and headed towards the inside of the house, "I'm sure three of us will be enough to hold them off."

"Where are you going?" stopping, Alethea raised an eyebrow at this, watching him as he walked off.

"Hm… later. We'll have to talk about it later."

They both watched as he walked off as well, and then exchanged bewildered looks before shrugging it out. By the sounds of the concentrated marching, the people they were about to be forced to hold off were coming soon.

Aine rolled her eyes, "Well, here we go."

000

He waved his rapier lightly, smirking with interest as he saw a small column of people approaching their home. Residents that lived around them just watched warily as they allowed them to pass by. Armel inclined his hair as he brushed his hair back with his free hair coolly.

"Never thought too much about it, but they're weird looking. Never seen an army this… small," he said to himself, "but there's no way in hell that I'm going to allow them into access with this house. This is going to be painful."

000

The last thing that the other four, currently pondering in the room, expected was Argentine bursting into the room. "You guys really need to get out of here. Now."

"And you only worked it out now?" Dark lay on the ground, staring blankly at the ceiling and occasionally tapping his head with the hilt of his dagger. "Of course, the only thing we know at the moment is blowing up the place and creating an underground passageway or something."

"You're in luck then, because that's the way you'll be going," he waved over to them, "unless you hate the dark or something…"

Krad stood up, brushing her cloak and rearranging her broadsword, "We could be worse off. The last thing I need is formal titles again; it's the absolute worse. Oh, won't they arrest your or something for denying them entrance?"

With a snort, the sandy-blonde-haired man shook his head, "They can't follow with laws like that; especially if they're not even in their own world, if you get my drift. Besides, the Delvin family has a tradition of being rather brutal to intruders and people who weren't invited along by someone known…"

"All in all, you're a sadist," offered Daisuke helpfully, grinning over at his former mentor, who sighed.

"You're lucky you used to be a student of mine… even if it was at a young age. If anyone else… aside from family or maybe your sister…"

"Hey, it's a good sadisity…"

Satoshi blinked, "You're making up random words now."

"Improvising?"

"Hm…"

"So where are we walking off to this time, then?" asked Dark, seeing as the two younger males were now making more or less no sense on the matter and With had given up bouncing around and was just sprawled on the bed like a stuffed animal.

"Just follow me."

They did as they were told, mostly having to note such instruction as "don't step on that step unless you want to be electrocuted" and "ignore the trip wire" or "keep to this side unless you want to have arrows flying at your head".

Daisuke ducked under a large beam that seemed to have collapsed on itself and was at an odd angle as they entered what could only be described as the dead part of the house; leading to the basement, cellars, etc. "Argentine-kun, when did you decide to start booby-trapping the place?"

He turned briefly at this, flicking at a piece of dust that seemed to be suspended in mid-air, and shrugged, "A year ago, I think. And I do believe that it was all Alethea's idea, in an attempt to keep Aine from getting into trouble. Although after that crazy girl got around to reading about how to make traps… it's a little dangerous if you don't know your way around."

"Nice, but I honestly can't see anything at the moment," grumbled Krad's voice somewhere behind them.

"Come on, then," Dark replied, and then there was an indignant yelp and then a slap… "What was that for!"

"Don't just try to grab people's hands while they had no idea where they're going!"

"I can see just fine! Come on!"

"No! My eyes'll adjust! ... Eventually."

"Krad, honestly, you have to stop acting like that otherwise I'll be dead before the week is through."

"That's your fault, not mine."

There was a moment of grumbling and then sullen silence.

"Argentine-kun… are you actually able to see? Because I'm having trouble at the moment…" the redhead trailed off when he felt a hand take his own behind him and then identified Satoshi's voice.

"There really isn't much here, unless you like seeing cobwebs and spiders… and corpses."

"Say what?" Dark asked, and if anyone else had been able to see properly, they would have picked the purple-haired guy's grin off at an instant. Then again, being the irrational guy he was and all, they shouldn't have expected any less.

There was a snort up at the very front, "We don't have corpses around here. And even if we did, they'd just be skeletons in the end."

"… So where are we headed anyway?"

"We're almost there…" Argentine began muttered, pointing at particular door-looking-vibes, "Bathroom, bathroom, dressing room, clothes storage room… ah, here we go. This should be the one to lead you out of town. I have no idea on where it ends up taking you, but it should be okay."

"I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever be able to trust what another male says," Krad sighed, as both herself and Daisuke couldn't see a thing still and had to be more or less led off by Dark and Satoshi.

"Be careful either way." Argentine told them as they walked onwards without him. "And tell Daichi to stop trying to send snakes after her enemies; they're bound to bite her first."

Daisuke laughed nervously at this, unable to see the bewildered glances that the others shot at one another (or at the wall, as was Krad's case) and knew that he was blushing. Hey, sister twin or not, he wasn't exactly the boss of her and whatever she chose to do was entirely her choice and he really had no say on it; unless he had something really against it, of course.

"So where do you think this place leads to, then?" Dark asked sometime later, as they just walked on, and on, and on, and on into the… well, nothingness, it seemed. Although it was becoming obvious that it was getting annoyingly cold and there seemed to be no end to it.

"Who knows, but we have to take our chances on it, don't we? Nothing more unless you want me to blast a hole into the ceiling… why are we still walking in the dark!" the blonde suddenly seemed to explode and there was a yelp from Daisuke before a flickering ball of light came to life. Krad huffed in annoyance, "I knew I should have done this before… you two okay?"

It was clear that the redhead had cannoned into the vampire and the two had fallen over after the blonde finally just snapped for five seconds. Both were sprawled on the rocky floor and Dark sniggered while Krad just blinked.

"That's got to hurt."

With nodded silently from the top of Daisuke's head.

"Ow… that's bright, you know," the redhead whined slightly as he sat up and only then noticed their position, "Ah! Satoshi-kun, are you alright?"

"I've had worse, remember."

Dark blinked, "'Satoshi-kun'? Care to enlighten me to when this began? Or are you two…" Krad placed her free hand over his mouth to keep him quiet.

"Walk now; talk later. I hate the feeling of this place; too creepy and quiet," and as if to prove her point, her voice bounced and echoed eerily around them. Dark shrugged at this, but decided not to question her decision.

They continued on their way in silence, although the constant sound of dripping water was something that they couldn't block out, even if they wanted to. Part of them did, seeing as the noise was bound to make them partly insane, but the other part just decided that it was better that than in complete and utterly eerie silence.

"Look!" ignoring the startled glares and yelps and Krad's frown, Dark pointed forwards, as if they couldn't see, "I see the light at the end of the tunnel!"

"Very original, I'm sure," snorted Satoshi. "We're not blind, you know."

"Ha ha ha… whatever."

"Dark, stop acting like a child and come on. This is bound to be something."

"O… kay… what the?"

000

"Well, you see," Alethea began courteously; both Aine and herself confronted by an odd number of soldiers, "you're trespassing on private grounds at the moment, sirs, and unless you have a former appointment arranged, we can't allow you entrance."

"I suggest you change your mind about that," barked one of the soldiers, drawing his sword and pointing it dangerously close to her throat, but one – suspected to be the captain – batted it away and bowed to her.

"Do forgive him, dear lady. He's a bit… ignorant. But we are here on royal orders and must go. You see… we lost some of our own down in this world a few years back and we have been commanded by both the queen and king of the Sun and Moon kingdom to bring them back as soon as we got word of their position. It's merely from the goodness of their hearts."

Aine raised her eyebrows at this, "Is that so? Well, like my sister said; you can't come in without an arranged appointment. And this is the backyard, might I add. I do believe you'll have to pay for wrecking innocent hedges?"

"Innocent?" spluttered another figure, who was trying to wrestle what looked like vines off their neck. "This thing is strangling me!"

"Well, you shouldn't have forced your way in here then."

There was the sound of an explosion from where the front door was located and the two girls passed knowing glances, "Armel."

"Okay then," Aine said conversationally, cracking her knuckles, "it looks like you people aren't about to leave soon, so why don't we do it for you?" She flipped out her dagger – which had been concealed in the sleeve of her shirt – and smirked.

All Alethea could really do was shake her head as she pulled out her own summoning gear, "I'm beginning to wonder if being sadistic runs in the family."

"Oh, come on, sis, you know it's fun."

"That's the problem, isn't it?"

With a shrug, they watched with amusement as the small party of soldiers made their way towards them, seeing as they weren't about to allow them to pass anytime soon.

Of course, whether magical-soldiers-not-exactly-human against summoned-monsters-from-who-knew-where had a conclusion, no one would truly know; and not for a long time, at that.

000

(cough) I can't help but think that this has been a really, really… badly-written chapter. Wheee--! (runs into a wall) Well, at least that's out of the way now and I can think of other things. Mainly… what happens next.

Yeah, for some reason they have an underground pathway to someplace and people are fighting and… I don't even know what kind of race Krad and Dark are, really. o.O They're like… human but not. And there was the chicken mention for some reason. Don't ask why.

Mria: Glad you liked the Christmas thing, it was a rather random thing because I wanted something for the season but couldn't find the time oO Well, it's only really loosely based, because I have no idea where this is really going anymore. I'll probably add more later, if I see fit XD We'll probably find out in a couple of chapters. Dark and Krad can't run away forever ;)

ginny brenn: Hrm… that's a good idea, actually (insert evil smirk here) Daichi's the over reactive sort, so that's for sure. Thanks for the reviews-!


	12. Phase Ten: Part of the Imagination

Disclaimers: Pay me money. I'm poor. If I owned this, at least I wouldn't be begging for that, right?

Warnings: Random pointlessness, an almost non-existent plotline, failed attempt of fluffyness, Dark-abuse? Clichéd-bunnies-of-doom! (Okay… maybe not) Slow, slow progress.

Other: It's almost been seven months since I actually tried to post something up. How many people actually remember what's happening in this story? How many people actually care? XD (I know I do, but that's only due to the fact I 1) need to finish it and 2) I've got two (three?) freaking sequels planned already o.O and this needs _conclusion._ It's not coming anytime soon, though. I wonder how many more chapters of rambling you can take. If you can actually read this, then I salute you.)

000

_"When they meet again, something more terrifying and evil will awaken. Something long since sealed away will break free: leaving death and destruction in its wake. Will they be able to handle it again? Or is this the end of the road?"_

Phase Ten: (They say it's all) Part of the Imagination

"It's a town." Satoshi stated dully.

"Like we couldn't see that for ourselves?" snorted Krad, looking around herself with a mild form of curiosity.

"It's a town." The vampire repeated, clearly trying to get his message across; whatever that actually was. No one had been able to work it out exactly yet, so that wasn't helping matters for them.

Dark scratched the back of his head and sighed, "Do you think vampires have some sort of broken recording device that makes them repeat the same thing over and over again? Or is it just the creep over there that does it?" He grinning winningly at the blunette, who merely glared at him.

Krad muttered something incoherent under her breath, hand twitching over the hilt of her sword; clearly indicating that she was planning to decapitate a certain someone sooner than later if they didn't shut up about making stupid comments all the time. Sadly, Dark was not one to catch such clear hints and, if it hadn't been for Daisuke, he would probably be lying on the rocky floor and his head rolling merrily away to who knew where. Hrm, yes, very pleasant thoughts.

"Guys," the redhead half-whined, catching their attention, "we really shouldn't be starting another fight among ourselves because we all know that Krad will end up killing all of us--"

"Except maybe you 'cause you're too kind and thoughtful and you never get on her nerves," corrected Dark, not looking over at the daemon tamer as he had just begun a glaring contest with Satoshi.

"—but this is serious. This whole situation is completely screwed up and at the rate we're going, we'll never get anywhere again. And I'm missing school for this. Daichi's going to kill me," Daisuke added as an afterthought. When he noticed that neither one of the two replied (and Krad was really slowing beginning to pull her sword out of its sheath) he pouted, "Dark! Satoshi-kun!"

The blonde shook her head, "Give it up, Daisuke. They'll be having that glaring contest for the next few months if we left them to it. Of course, with Dark, sleeping is an essential, so he would probably be the first to lose. But, seeing as we honestly can't just stand here and wait for the animosity to come to its breaking point…"

She trailed off, replaced her sword – half-surprised that she had been wielding it as it had become a natural reflective action – stomped over to Dark and hit him around the head.

This, of course, was replied with a pained and surprised yelp as Dark toppled over and slammed face-first into the ground. Krad snickered, Satoshi smirked, Daisuke looked worried, and With… well, the familiar seemed to be content with just sitting on his tamer's shoulders without a care in the world.

The thief-prince-whatever groaned in obvious pain and pushed himself up by his hands, went into a kneeling position, and poked his face cautiously. Satoshi and Daisuke exchanged puzzled looks at his less-than-noisy reaction while Krad rolled her eyes, and waited for the time-bomb she knew was there, to explode.

As expected, it didn't take long for it to blow up.

"Kraaaaaaaaaaaad!" whined Dark, loudly, one might add. The blonde pasted on a look of complete and utter innocence as he turned to face her, looking upset. Like he had just been betrayed by his best friend and just couldn't believe it.

"Yeeeees Dark?" she drawled out, crossing her arms and inclining her head.

"You SO did that one purpose!"

"Like we didn't know that already?" commented Satoshi on the sidelines. Dark continued his little rant, clearly not hearing the vampire's comment.

"You're lucky I didn't break anything otherwise--"

"You'd have what?" asked Krad, smirking now, "Hurt me? Not likely."

"No! I mean, yes! I mean--"

"Dark seems to be very inarticulate at the moment," Daisuke couldn't help but point out. Unfortunately (or fortunately… whatever), Dark actually heard this as he whipped his head around to where the redhead was standing.

"Quiet you!"

"Kyuu!"

"…"

As the silence grew, and while Dark was clearly trying to string more than two words together while Krad waited for the witty response, this gave both Daisuke and Satoshi (and maybe With, but then again, being a familiar, he wouldn't have much thought on the matter… or was that say?) a chance to take a better look at their surroundings, seeing as their seniors… er… superiors… okay, teammates, weren't about to move anytime soon.

Like any sort of town found in an underground labyrinth of rocks, cobwebs and spiders, it was old. And dilapidated. Like they didn't already know that already, but it was what they saw, so who was to comment about it? So there they were, standing at the entrance of some town that was clearly old and… well, underground, with the brick walls crumbling and all that usual stuff one finds when they come across such a cliched-sort-of-scene.

Maybe.

"Do you think it's haunted?" the daemon tamer asked curiously, looking around in hopes of spotting a ghost-like substance.

Satoshi raised an eyebrow, "I highly doubt it. It just looks like some random civilization just wanted to live underground like the gnomes, abandoned it, and then allowed the rocks to deteriorate. Because if this had ever been above the ground, it would probably have been hit by an avalanche and buried… unless it was an earthquake."

"Hey, earthquakes are cool. Don't say bad things about the earthquakes," Dark muttered, as both he and the blonde approached them. It seemed that their little argument had just plain fizzled out; but by the look on Krad's face, she'd won their silent argument about petty things Dark loved to complain about. The vampire rolled his eyes at this.

"Right, all of a sudden you love earthquakes, although it is well known that humans and creatures alike do tend to die because of them."

"Sure, why not?"

"Just because you lived up in the sky like some mutated angel of doom…"

"Do you think gnomes lived here?" asked Daisuke to Krad, as the vampire and thief began a loud – if not pointless – argument.

The blonde thought for a moment, frowning just slightly, "I wouldn't put it past them. Although I've never met a gnome in my life, considering I was living way up _there_," she jabbed a finger upwards to emphasize her point, "and the last two years… well, werewolves are cool and all, but they can get kind of annoying when you spend too much time with them. A mercenary's life was hell, and I didn't even really need it, did I?" This question was aimed at herself, as she mused it over for a moment, while Daisuke processed the information. "What, do you want to go gnome hunting or something?"

"I wanna go gnome hunting!" yelped Dark, who currently had Satoshi in a headlock, while the vampire elbowed him at occasional intervals. His speaking was broken by this attack as he continued doggedly. "Those crazy" jab "little things that" jab "dig holes in the" jab "ground" jab "are so cool--" jab jab jab.

Krad blinked, "Okay… for some reason, that sounds more like a mole or something. I do believe gnomes have more intelligence than that. Actually, why am I listening to what they moron says?" Shaking her head, she left Dark to his predicament of being jabbed to death by the vampire and dragged Daisuke with her to take a closer look at the (probably more cliched than usual) underground town they'd come across.

There definitely wasn't much, all things considered.

Empty houses. Check.

Spiders. Check.

Rubble and dust and… well… nothing else. Check.

Now… where was the exit…

"Do you think Argentine-kun meant this town when he was talking about where the tunnel leads us to?" Daisuke asked out loud, staring up at the ceiling in hopes of finding the source of light that Dark had so knowingly discovered which had led them here. Of course, he couldn't locate it, and that was a pity, but they weren't getting anywhere and it was beginning to get a little irksome. This had started just to meet up again and catch up and all that other junk, so why was it that they were now running for their lives? It didn't make any sense at all and he didn't really like not being able to understand the situation, and the current events they were caught in were the most perplexing.

Not to mention it had been less than a day and had taken ten chapters to reach where they were now… it was a long and slow grueling process that didn't look like it was going to end anytime soon. Oh the joy in it all.

Krad yawned, clearly bored with the proceedings, although she was the one in the most danger (and Dark of course, but he doesn't count), "Who knows. But I'm kind of hoping that it's not, because I have no intention of living underground for the rest of my life until the guards give up the search. And all things considered, I doubt they will for a least another twenty years. Our parents are persistent."

"Then we should move on rather than wasting more time," the redhead decided, before walking over to where Satoshi was _still_ elbowing Dark painfully in the side and caught their attention, "Come on guys; we need to get moving otherwise Argentine's sacrifice will mean nothing."

"Actually, I got the notion that he was enjoying the idea of hurting trespassers," Krad pointed out, slapping Dark lightly over the head, "You said he was a sadist. And Dark, let go."

The violet-haired adolescent pouted but complied, rubbing his abused head in place of trying to choke the vampire to death; "So? There's nothing wrong with hurting annoying guards. The last I remember of them, they were highly incompetent and were only good at looking tough."

"Wow, you actually stated something semi-intelligent," mused the blonde before ignoring him and turning to the other two while Dark sulked. "In all honesty, I think if we can get you two out of this little scenario, then Dark and I will be fine. So if we continue--"

"No."

"What?" Krad stopped to frown at Daisuke, who had replaced his usually carefree expression with one of determination. Hello hilarity. With seemed to feel the same as his summoner and "kyu"-ed resolutely.

"You'll need all the help you can get if we want to smooth things over," the redhead stated matter-of-factly, "and I'm naturally curious about why they're going all out just to get you back home. Even if you are the only heirs of the kingdom, it seems a little overboard…"

"Yes, but you're the only one out of the four of us who can't fly, which will definitely become a hindrance." Point of fact.

Daisuke smiled, "I'm a daemon tamer, remember?"

"Oh yeah… that."

"You're staying too, right, Satoshi-kun?"

The vampire shrugged, rubbing his neck and shooting Dark a glare at random intervals, "It isn't like I have anything else to do with my time."

"Then it's settled!"

Krad smirked at Daisuke's enthusiasm, despite the fact that this was no laughing matter; "Fine. I really didn't like the idea of having to deal with Dark on my own anyway. Probably would have abandoned him as soon as I saw the chance."

"Krad!" whined Dark.

"Grow up already, asshole. What kind of prince are you?"

"That's not the point!"

"Of course it is, seeing as you were incapable of defending yourself for years," she snapped back, leading the way as they walked past the horrors of old looking homes that had no real reason of being there, seeing as it had no role in terms of plot and/or character development. The light she had summoned earlier bounced around like a firefly on sugar as the younger two followed her. Dark seemed to be frozen in some form of indignity, but it didn't take long for him to recover and to yell at them for leaving him behind.

It was going to be one hell of a long trip…

000

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"…" Krad shot at glare at Dark, who was walking next to her, and decided a different tact in answering, "It depends on what you mean."

"Are we… what?" Dark blinked, finally deciding not to talk like a broken record for the time being.

"Well, think about it," she began in a mock-serious tone of voice, "defining 'there' doesn't help in terms of our situation, as we have no idea where the hell we are going, except that we can't stay in one place for too long in fear of being dragged back home and having the telling-off of a lifetime, and whatever other consequences we may have to face depending on how our parents will… er… punish us." She clearly serious doubted it, though, that much was obvious. "And besides, it's not like we have an in-built sensor that tells us when we'll finally see the light of day again and all, so stop asking such pointless questions."

"Huh… er… right… yeah?"

Daisuke blinked as he watched Dark trying to process what Krad had just said into a more decipherable language for him. "Dark has a point though… it feels like we've been walking for longer than necessary in the same tunnel… it's kind of a drag."

"Kyuu!" agreed With.

"Yeah, you think so too, With. How about you, Satoshi-kun?"

"Hn," ah yes, the wonderful non-committal noise one makes when not in the mood to actually say something. Daisuke blinked, but decided not to comment on it and turned over to the blonde, leaving the vampire to the depth of his thoughts that would probably lead to nowhere.

"What do you think, Krad?"

The blonde glanced over in his direction, shadows throwing everything off-balance and giving a painfully eerie look. If shadows could look eerie in a pointlessly long tunnel-way like this, anyway. Which they probably could, but the lacking scenery was getting on their nerves more than anything else; in which no one could blame them for that little flaw in human nature. "I can't argue against that little fact in life, Daisuke, but we either keep going forward or go all the way back and who knows what we'll see if we go back there."

"Good point. Argentine-kun wouldn't be too happy about that, either."

"Then let's keep going. Dark, move your ass," the blonde threw an arm around the violet-haired adolescent's shoulders and proceeded upon dragging him off forcefully. Dark gave something akin to a squawk of protest, but Krad merely snapped back and did not let go.

Daisuke smiled, "They seem to get along quite well."

"… Really," mumbled Satoshi.

"Yeah, of course!"

"Kyuu!"

The vampire shrugged as they both hurried to catch up with the other two, to walk who knew how-many-more-hours to the unknown.

000

Dark unexpectedly shrew the blonde's arm off his shoulder and pointed ahead with an air of over-exaggerated enthusiasm, "It's the light again! We've either reached the end or we're all dead and delusional!"

Krad hit him over the head for being an idiot, "Shut up, you moronic bastard. If we hadn't stopped out of need for sleep, except for you," she nodded over at Satoshi, "it would probably be night. Who knows where we are now. Because I sure don't have any clue."

"That makes all four of us then." Satoshi deadpanned. With had, for some unknown reason, taken up residence on the blunette's head, and 'kyuu'-ed happily. "I don't think anyone's surprised at the lack of plot development at this point."

The redhead next to him blinked, "Plot development?"

"No, it's nothing. You shouldn't worry about it."

"O… kay…"

The blonde gave a frustrated sigh and she dragged a hand through her hair without much thought. It didn't really take all that long to get on one's patience, especially if they were caught in a web of completely and utterly complicated situations that involved them, but… it wasn't like they didn't know what the consequences would be.

It was still completely and utterly ridiculous, though.

"Krad looks annoyed," Daisuke pointed out rather uselessly. As if the others hadn't worked it out yet. Dark, of course, had managed to finally pick up the warning signs and this was part of the reason to why he'd allowed himself to be dragged around like that.

"Let's go to that light of doom then!"

"I think he's delusional," the blonde stated as the thief ran off ahead of them, followed closely behind by the daemon tamer, who was yelling at him to slow down. "Not that should come as any form of shock at this point."

The vampire stood next to her, "I really do feel sorry for you. Being stuck with him."

"Wish I could say you get used to it, but you don't. I don't see why I bother to tolerate his behavior all the time. If it's love, then it really is messed up. I think I'll just call it tolerance beyond the norm."

"Tolerance, huh? 'Love' is just a label for infatuated mortals."

Krad glanced over at him. "Then what's with you and Daisuke? Don't tell me you're just using him to get free blood."

He glared at her, "I wouldn't do that," he said icily.

"Then what is it?" she smirked. Even if he didn't show it, it was clear the vampire was confused with his own feelings. Satoshi snorted at this and swept past her.

"Who knows."

The blonde sniggered at his reaction, and trailed behind him. Maybe it wouldn't be too boring if she took a leaf out of Dark's book and started to tease the vampire. Being female would also come to her advantage because of the general knowledge that women caught on faster than men. If Dark was any example… actually, it was probably better _not_ to use him as an example.

They couldn't see where the other two had gone – especially as they had stopped yelling at one another – and they hurried to catch up. At they stepped out of what looked more like a mine-shaft-entrace-thingy, Krad stopped abruptly and Satoshi stared at the scenery before them impassively. As it was his usual facial expression, it didn't come too much as a surprise that he lacked emotion, even when sharp pointy objects were shoved in their faces.

The blonde stared at the soldiers that surrounded them and rolled her eyes, "Now, isn't _this_ just a little cliched? Please, give me a break."

Dark nodded in agreement, having backtracked with Daisuke so that the four were now completely and utterly surrounded, "I was just thinking that myself, you know."

"Couldn't they think of something a little more original," muttered Krad.

The soldiers shifted slightly, clearly uneased by the dismissive attitude the four were showing, rather than the expected fear/horror/wtf-attitude most ambushed peoples showed.

"Well, at least we never did catch up with the forerunners, or we would have missed their auras," muttered the one who was probably the officer, before stepping forward, "Prince Dark, Princess Krad, we're here to take you back home, under order of your parents, the kings and queens of--"

"Yak, yak, yak," Krad tapped her foot impatiently against the ground. The officer was now in full-flow-rant and didn't hear her, "Maybe we should just walk off or something. Too bad there are too many pointy objects aimed towards us and even he would notice if we flew off."

"My head hurts," Daisuke claimed, "Even Hikaru didn't sound this annoying…"

"Just block your ears," suggested Satoshi calmly, wrapping an arm around the redhead. Dark sniggered.

"Aw… how sweet."

"Shut up, Dark," both Satoshi and Krad snapped and the thief pouted.

"—and you are expected to return, otherwise we will have to use force." Finished the officer with a flourish. He then noticed the other two, "Better drag those two along as well."

"Why aren't I surprised?" the vampire remarked sarcastically as they began to get hustled off. With agreed with him, Krad looked murderous, although it seemed mixed with complete boredom; Dark was now shouting random insults at the soldiers, clearly hoping for a reaction; and Daisuke? The redhead only muttered something that sounded like; "Daichi's going to kill me for this, I know it…"

Now, how had it ended up like this?

000

Now how many mole-men-can-live-in-this-deserted-mine-town-before-the-ceiling-collapses-over-them-and-kills-them-all? Er… that is, gnomes. Hm… they didn't get to see any gnomes. And everyone was picking on Dark… who's supposed to be 20 (? Yeah… that's his age… right?). But look, they're going 'home'. Ten guesses as to what will happen next. Anyway who is right gets a free cookie from me XD (metaphorically. I suppose I could draw you a request, but… shrugs)

Bets on how long it will take for me to get my ass back into gear to write the next phase (yes, you heard me; this is, in fact, an old-ish (three months?) chapter I never got around to actually posting. I think you can tell why). Part of this was school (assignments and the like) and a complete lack of inspiration/motivation. So sue me. Anyone who actually reads my DA journals may have a vaguely clearer idea on what's going on with my life. Other than that, I've been rather inactive everywhere. Bad Seena (hits self). Okay, I'll shut up and crawl back into the hole I dug myself in seven months previously. Thanks to the people who actually bothered to read this after such a long break. If not… (shrugs) I can't blame you? XD


End file.
